The Hidden Princess
by fatefulfaerie
Summary: The kingdom has been overtaken by Ganondorf. A once peaceful Hyrule now engulfed in flames, a young Princess finds herself consumed by guilt. Without a hero by her side, she must persevere nonetheless. Rated T for dark themes.
1. Escape

The Princess held the Ocarina to her chest as she waited with hope for his return, clutching its' fragile, blue surface, her eyes closed.

Somehow, the reason why amiss to even herself, she felt he was close. She could almost see him running across Hyrule Field.

"Your Highness!" echoed a familiar voice among the walls of the Temple of Time.

"Impa," Zelda replied as she opened her eyes. "I will not have your objections. I must wait for him. He must be the one to save us all."

"No," she heard behind her, prompting her to turn around to face to Sheikah attendant.

"There's been an attack…that Gerudo Ganondorf…and he's looking for you. I need to get you as far away from the castle as possible, for your own safety."

"No," Zelda said as she shook her head. "My father, my kingdom, Link…"

"Princess," Impa stated in a serious tone. "There is no time. You must be kept safe."

"But Im—" Zelda started before she was interrupted by a resounding crash outside the temple.

"Now!" Impa exclaimed as she grabbed Zelda's wrist and started to run, the Princess trying to keep up behind her.

They emerged from the Temple of Time, their clothes and hair starting to sodden with the rain that fell.

Everything was a blur as the Princess felt herself lifted up to the back of a white horse, Impa quickly sitting behind her.

"Hut!" The Sheikah exclaimed as she whipped the reins. The Princess started to cry when she heard thunder roar in her ears, when she saw the stormy skies tainted with the red of burning fires, when she looked back to find the castle gone.

She was too late. She had failed.

Yet, as the quick hooves hastened along below her, Hyrule Field becoming a dark blur, she looked back at the hub of her kingdom, a flash of green catching her eye.

"Link!" she exclaimed when she recognized him, fumbling for the ocarina she held.

The Princess threw the instrument as far as she could before looking forward, the little boy now out of sight.

She felt her breathing quicken as they continued quickly, worried for so many things she couldn't control.

Her father's safety, leaving Link alone, leaving her kingdom to ruin.

"Slow breaths, Your Highness," Impa said calmly. "In and out."

Zelda closed her eyes as more tears fell, concentrating instead on just inhaling and exhaling until it became slower.

Her shut eyes started to squint as she tried to picture Link, if he got the ocarina, if he was safe.

"Link…" she started as his image faded into her mind.

He was standing just outside Castle Town, looking out at Hyrule Field desperately.

"Link," she continued. "Can you hear me? It's me, Zelda…"

She watched his expression change, as if alerted by something he heard, and smiled when he whispered,

"Zelda," and closed his eyes.

"Link," Zelda began desperately. "The Ocarina…when you hold it in your hand…I won't be around anymore. I'm sorry…I wanted to wait for you, but I couldn't delay any longer. I regret that you must carry on with our plan alone. I'm glad I could at least leave you the Ocarina and this melody…"

* * *

The Princess shot open her eyes to an unfamiliar brown canvas, sitting straight up.

She found herself in a tent, looking around before her eyes met a red gaze across the way.

Impa stared with her normal neutral expression at the girl, not a word forming from her lips.

She left the tent in silence, leaving the Princess to the questions lingering in her mind.

Zelda remembered everything, leaving the castle, Impa taking her far and away from the kingdom of Hyrule.

She must have fallen asleep before they arrived.

Yet, she couldn't ignore a odd feeling that started to grow inside her, like something had gone wrong.

She closed her eyes, trying to only focus on the boy she now placed all her hope in.

Her eyebrows twitched in frustration when she couldn't see him as she did before.

"Link," she started. "If you can hear me, please respond. Were you able to get into the Sacred Realm? Did you pull the sword?"

Zelda took a deep, shaky breath in response to his apparent silence before continuing desperately,

"Link, please! Are you okay? I need to know."

"No," she whispered as she started quick shakes of her head at the lack of response, no image of the boy clothed in green.

The Princess opened her eyes in panic, scrambling to stand up.

Without hesitation, not a care to how messy her wet, unrestrained hair was, how unkempt and improper the rags she wore were, she hastened out of the tent.

The Princess ran and ran, the same panic fueling her desperation, the silence and emptiness that came from her connection to Link worrying her greatly.

Into the cold night air, she ran, her feet pattering along the rain-soaked grass.

"No!" she exclaimed when she felt a firm hand grab her arm.

"Something's wrong!" She continued as she resisted the pull, trying to run like she was before. "I should never have left him alone! I have to—"

She stopped when Impa forcefully turned her around, clamping the Princess' arms as she knelt before her and met her eye-line.

"Princess! The King is dead!" Impa yelled.

The Princess' eyes widened as Impa bowed her head with a sigh, catching heavy breaths.

"I'm sorry," she continued. "I didn't want to tell you like this, but Ganondorf…he's already claimed the throne…he's looking to kill you next!"

Tears started to fall from Zelda's face as Impa looked back up.

She was telling the truth.

"Father…" Zelda said shakily before Impa pulled her into an embrace, Impa stroking the back of her head to comfort her.

"I need to get you inside," Impa said softly as Zelda cried into her shoulder, trembling with fear. "Do you understand?"

The Princess nodded, prompting Impa to pick her up, supporting the backs of her knees and her shoulders.

Zelda's gaze was blank and unfocused as she submitted to Impa's hold, soon finding herself in a hut, warm with a kept fire.

Impa set her down to sit on a rug before sitting across from the Princess, whose distant eyes drowned with sadness, and an obvious guilt.

The Sheikah attendant took an inhale before changing her mind, instead beginning with,

"There's no way around it," prompting Zelda to look at her as she continued.

"If you value your life, you must be kept hidden. We can make you look like one of us, and, with the proper training, you may one day be one of us."

Zelda nodded and said,

"I understand,"

"What about Link?" Zelda asked.

Impa shook her head.

"I don't know."

The Princess' eyes narrowed.

"Yes, you do, you're lying to me."

Impa gave the Princess a glare of caution.

"I can't tell you that, not yet at least."

"Why not?" the Princess asked, starting to get agitated.

"Because you need to have a level head when you hear it," Impa replied argumentatively. "And because I need you disguised as soon as possible. With his resources, it will not take Ganondorf long to find this place, as hidden as it is, and you'll have more a chance of survival if you are simply a Sheikah youth."

Zelda pursed her lips before saying,

"Fine."

* * *

**Author's Note: I've been wanting to do a story that parallels '_The Forgotten Hero_' for a while now and, now that '_Ten Thousand Years Ago_' has finished, here is '_The Hidden Princess_'. Hopefully I've captured your attention and I'm excited for you to read what is to come.**


	2. Change

The Princess hated every second of it all.

And, she never expected that having to sneeze incessantly from the cold she caught wouldn't even be the worst part.

Worse than any corset, her entire body was bound so tight by that thin, white fabric that she could hardly breathe. Everyday she felt that who she used to be was retreating further and further inwards, pushed away by forces she couldn't control. She supposed she took for granted the freedom she had just a few days ago, but, was she ever really free? She knew she wouldn't choose this but would she really choose being a Princess either? Had she ever chosen anything?

Zelda shook her head at the thought. What nonsense. She missed her former life more than anything now. She would do anything to get it back, the people she once knew, her father and Link. So, if that 'anything' meant lack of oxygen, then so be it. She would survive.

She had agreed with Impa that she would be better protected under the pretense that she was a boy, yet it was a harder adjustment than she anticipated to go from the propriety and glamour of a Princess of Hyrule to a sheikah boy to be trained as a warrior.

Over the white wrappings, she was fitted in a small sheikah bodice, from head to toe. It was designed especially for stealth and increased movement, a must-have for any Sheikah warrior.

By the end of it all, she barely recognized herself when she looked in the old mirror before her.

She simply kept staring at her long, blonde hair tucked into more white wrappings.

She had almost been of age to stop wearing the headpiece she wore as a Princess, to let her hair down and adorn a tiara, to assume more duties around the castle, in her father's court.

And she ruined all of it.

Impa soon came in with what looked like an apologetic smile as the Princess stared at herself as a Sheikah boy.

Zelda looked behind her, expecting to see pride in her attendants' eyes.

Yet, she only found sadness.

Impa bent her knees to meet the young girl's eye-level.

"My eyes are still blue," Zelda said to Impa.

Impa's expression seemed to soften before she replied,

"I know."

The sheikah placed her hand on Zelda's shoulder.

"An illusory spell," Impa continued. "We use it for stealth, but…in a contained effort it…it should work on your eyes."

"Then, why are you so hesitant, Impa?"

Impa gave a breath of exhale, in her eyes a deep regret.

"It will be very painful," she said slowly. "But it must be done."

"I understand," Zelda said with a nod.

Impa held her other hand out in front of her and closed her eyes.

A shooting pain started to burn in Zelda's eyes, making her breathing quicken,

"Mmm," she whimpered as the pain grew, eventually cascading into a pain that led her to exclaim,

"Aah!" crumbling to her hands and knees.

The Princess panted heavy breaths as she looked at the floor, tears dropping onto the rug below her.

Impa took Zelda's chin, raising the pair of red eyes to meet her own.

"I am so proud of how strong you are," she said after they locked eyes.

Impa helped her to stand back in front of the mirror.

She was a Sheikah.

Or, at least, she passed as one.

"How will it go away?" Zelda asked. "If I ever go back to being a Princess…?"

"I will have to dispel it for you," replied Impa. "Or in the event of my demise, it will reverse on its' own. You may be able to do it on your own in time if you prove to have an affinity for magic, but otherwise, that's how it works. Unless you believe in old myths, there's no other way around it."

"Old myths?" Zelda asked.

Impa gave a chuckle.

"Just an old fairytale that all illusions dispel in the midst of true love, a cautionary tale, really. Love can be as much of a weakness as a strength. It's a vulnerability we Sheikah can't afford when we are out in the field."

"But never mind that," Impa continued, not noticing Zelda's expression of pondering as she placed both hands on her small shoulders. "You will now be known as Sheik, a male sheikah youth. We cannot run the risk of letting a misplaced 'Princess' or 'Your Highness' endanger you."

"Sheik," the hidden Princess repeated.


	3. In Plain Sight

**Author's Note: Wisdom teeth out, new chapter in. Apparently I'm physically incapable of taking a break, so here we are.**

* * *

The world around her was blurry and dreamlike, almost as if she weren't even there.

She was back in the Temple of Time, yet now the Door of Time was open, herself standing before the three spiritual stones, spinning in their magnificence.

The large pedestal, the walls, the ceiling, even the floor became less and less clear as she came closer to the mysterious room exposed by the open Door of Time.

Soon enough, as she walked along, her tight, sheikah garb slowly unraveled and her long, blonde hair fell to her shoulders. The floor she walked on became misty, and all around her were clouds.

She stopped when a figure started to fade into existence before her, her own eyes widening with recognition.

The young boy from the forest had his back turned to her.

Zelda inhaled to speak, but when she tried to form words, her voice had no sound.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she mouthed 'Link' once more, trying her hardest to make any noise.

She found herself running forward instead, extending out her arm to touch his shoulder.

Yet, her momentum made her run straight through the illusion.

When she looked back to where Link had to have been standing, she only saw Ganondorf before her, taller than she ever remembered.

Her breathing quickened as everything went black, the bright, blue skies and fluffy clouds now a distant memory as Ganondorf's yellow eyes burned with malice.

"What have you done with Link?" she asked the Gerudo, slightly surprised that her voice had returned.

"Shouldn't you be asking yourself that, Hylia?" the man replied, in a much deeper and huskier voice than Zelda remembered.

The Princess shook her head with fear, with disbelief as the tall man towered over her.

She couldn't move a muscle.

"Well?" Ganondorf continued. "What do your precious goddesses have to say for you now?"

Zelda crumbled to the ground in submission as he pulled out a large sword, readying it to strike.

"Link!" Zelda exclaimed as she ducked her head into her arms, curling herself into as small of a ball as she could.

"Zelda?" she heard as her eyes shut tighter and tighter.

It was Link's voice, there was no doubt about it.

"Zelda!" she heard again, but this time it was a deeper voice. She'd never heard it but somehow, she felt like she had.

"Sheik!" A familiar voice yelled as Zelda felt a hand shaking her shoulder.

Zelda opened her eyes to find Impa's.

"It's time," the Sheikah warrior stated.

They had planned for this, for three weeks they had planned for this.

Not another word was spoken between them as Zelda stood up, trying to keep her calm as Impa left the tent through the backside exit.

Zelda took a deep breath as she stepped outside, opening the flap to the clearing where many Sheikah stood with similar expressions.

She stepped forward slowly and cautiously, attempting to simply blend in with the Sheikah around her as they stared at the sight before them.

Ganondorf, the self-proclaimed Demon King…

He stepped off his large, black horse as the Sheikah chief stepped out of the main hut, only greeting him with a nod.

Zelda could tell that everyone had a contained fear, their red eyes trying to hide it as the tall Gerudo stepped inside the hut, ducking to fit inside the doorway.

As soon as the door closed, Zelda ran to the hut, ignoring the cautionary,

"Sheik, no," she heard along the way,

Zelda situated herself just below a small opening in the hut, wanting to hear every last bit of what he had to say for himself.

And, perhaps, what Impa wouldn't tell her about Link.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me," the Gerudo said. "The Sheikah have always been known to serve the Royal Family and, well, now that there's been a change in command, I've come to ensure that it is still the case."

"Of course," the chief replied, her hesitance apparent. "Our loyalty is to the crown, and even now that you've claimed it, I assure you that loyalty will not falter."

"But," the chief continued. "I must inform you that our numbers are still greatly diminished from the Hyrulean Civil War."

"That does not concern me," Ganondorf stated. "What concerns me is the whereabouts of one of your own, Impa. You may have convinced me of the loyalty of your tribe, but she was once the attendant of Princess Zelda, and was seen helping her escape. Do you know where she is?"

"I do not know the whereabouts of Impa or Princess Zelda, but if either of them cross paths with me, I assure you that I will hand them over to you immediately."

"Hm," Ganondorf hummed. "I must say that this is quite more severity than I expected on your part."

"Is that not what you wanted?" the chief asked.

"Well," Ganondorf replied. "Let's just say that I've become accustomed to not getting what I want. Recently I've found the power within myself to take it."

"You certainly have," the chief mumbled with just enough spite beneath her words to make Zelda's eyes widen.

She started to panic in her crouched position in the silence that followed, anticipating with an anxious glance up at the opening what would follow.

"If you are lying about all this," Ganondorf said, a slight suspicion in his voice. "There will be definite consequences."

"Then it's a good thing that we are an honest people," the chief said in reply. "Endlessly devoted to the rightful holder of the crown."

"Remember that," the Gerudo said before Zelda heard loud footsteps start to exit the hut.

"I certainly will," the chief said as Zelda hastened to make herself look busy at a nearby well.

She wished with all her might as she stared into the waters below at her rippling red eyes that he would pay her no mind as she heard him mount his horse.

"Hey, boy!" she heard him exclaim.

She let out a breath of exhale before turning around and facing him, trying with all her might to contain her fear.

And, most of all, her anger.

The man before her killed her father in cold blood.

"Draw me a cup of water, will you?"

"Yes sir," she managed as she nodded, hastening to pull on the rope quickly and scooping the water with a small cup.

Her hand was shaky as she offered it to him, and he took it with such force that she was prompted to step back.

Actually, she was quite prompted to fight him, right then and there.

But she knew she was no match for him on her own.

"What's your name, boy?" he asked as he tossed the cup to Zelda, making her catch it.

"Sheik," Zelda said.

"Well then, Sheik, I'll have you know that for future reference, I would rather be called by my title of 'King'. I assure you that you'd want the same respect if you were in my position."

Ganondorf held out his hand, bending his fingers into a tight fist.

Zelda's eyes widened when the Triforce appeared, clutching and covering the back of her own hand behind her back.

She nodded in response before watching Ganondorf quickly ride away from the village.

He was, after all, in a desperation to find the Princess.

"Do you think he suspected you?" the chief asked as she approached Zelda.

"No," Zelda replied.

"Impa wanted me to tell you to wait in her tent for her return."

"Training?" Zelda asked.

"No," the chief continued. "I think she's ready to be honest with you."


	4. Guilt

"I want you to tell me your plan, all of it," Impa finally said, the two of them sitting across from each other.

"Why can't you just tell me what happened to Link?" Zelda asked. "Is he alive? Is he okay?"

"Because it's more complicated than that, Sheik."

Zelda sighed.

"I didn't trust Ganondorf and I knew something was going to happen, something bad. Father didn't listen to me. I told you about my dream, but I was scared that you would stop me, so I confided in Link."

"It's easier to find another fool than to fight for reason," Impa grumbled.

"I thought I was acting in the best interest of the kingdom, Impa," Zelda said, frustrated by Impas' interjection. "I figured that if we could just get into the Sacred Realm, we could use the power of Triforce to defeat him, to circumvent Ganondorf's plot. The spiritual stones should have worked."

"They did," Impa said, Zelda surprised. "The Door of Time opened. Link pulled the sword, but was instantly sealed in the sacred realm, set to sleep fo—"

"Seven years," Zelda finished as her eyes widened.

She buried her face in her hands.

"How could I be so careless? The hero of old was almost an adult. The sword would never accept a child as its' master."

"Your plan never would have worked. You should have consulted me. He would have always been put to rest, or at least told to wait until he was much older."

"So the Sacred Realm was left open," Zelda said as she lifted her head from her hands, piecing it all together. "Ready and waiting for Ganondorf to—"

Zelda put a hand to her mouth as she gasped, Impa nodding,

Not only did she fail to stop him with the power of what lied in the Sacred Realm, but she enabled Ganondorf access to it in the effort to do so.

Her father's death, Link losing his childhood…it really was all her fault.

"He tried to claim the Triforce," Impa started. "But from what you've told me, it seems he was unsuccessful. He was only able to access a third of its' power, the Triforce of Power readily housing itself in his soul."

Zelda's eyes narrowed as her hand lowered.

"So, Ganondorf can't truly have the power he seeks until Link wakes up and until…"

"He finds you," Impa finished.

"Seven years…" Zelda whispered as she slowly shook her head. "Seven years he'll never get back, and an even longer time was taken away from my father."

Zelda started to well up, her voice breaking,

"And I've left my kingdom destroyed," she said weakly as she cried. "I can't do this, I can't sit back and watch everyone suffer because of the mistakes I've made. I…I've ruined everything…I was weak, selfish, naive…what a cruel joke that the goddesses ordained me with wisdom."

Zelda's hands clutched the opposite arm as her knees bent closer to her chest.

Impa's expression softened as she watched the girl break down in front of her.

"Take it away from me Impa!" she exclaimed, becoming increasingly upset. "The Triforce of Wisdom, I don't deserve it! I…I can't handle it!"

Tears fell down her face as she rested her head on her knees, sniffling as they continued.

Impa slowly walked over before sitting down and taking the young girl into her lap.

She wiped away her tears as she held her close.

"Now you don't mean that…" Impa said calmly, more motherly now than she had ever been.

"I do," Zelda said in such a distinctly petulant voice that Impa almost smiled at.

"Well, I suppose someone else will help Link in his fight against Ganondorf," Impa continued, feigning the seriousness of Zelda's statement.

"They better," Zelda said with the same petulance. "He should hate me…just like the rest of my kingdom"

"Oh," Impa said with a chuckle. "Okay."

"You can believe whatever you want," Impa started. "And you can shout and you can scream, but first I need you to listen to me."

"It was Ganondorf's recent out-of-place actions in your father's court that made you suspect him in the first place and it was Ganondorf who greedily attacked the kingdom in search of the goddess' power. That looks to have been an inevitable occurrence. You can blame yourself all you want, but you can't deny that as the truth. And blaming yourself now cannot change the reality of the situation. Ganondorf took advantage of your justifiable fear and of your ardent desire to protect your kingdom, quite an honorable desire at that."

"In a different circumstance, you may have had the knowledge to act more rationally, or perhaps consult me or your father, but you didn't. You had the wisdom to think for yourself, to take things into your own hands and attempt to thwart Ganondorf's potential threat as best you could. This is a wisdom you carry even now as you hide from his grasp and circumvent his plot, and…it is a wisdom that Link will need by his side when the time comes. You have been taught of the old legends just as I have. You know that the Triforce of Wisdom descends from the royal bloodline, nothing can erase it."

"I know," Zelda said quietly. "But I'm scared, Impa, You can't deny that I failed my kingdom, no matter how much my hiding away abstains his plans. What if…what if I fail again seven years from now?"

"You won't," Impa replied.

"How do you know?" asked Zelda.

"I just do," Impa said. "And any doubts you have, any courage you lack, any power you need, I will help you with. You and Link have both been given seven years to grow up and change for the better. I have no doubt that you two will find a way to face Ganondorf together, even if it is later than you planned."

Zelda stood up from Impa's hold, walking away in frustration to the other side of the enclosure.

"You're wrong," Zelda said with her back turned. "Link was not given seven years. I took seven years away from him. It's not right."

"He was willing to fight for the kingdom and it is apparent he was courageous enough to risk everything for you. I bet you anything if you talked to him, he would say that it was a necessary sacrifice."

"It was unwilling, Impa," Zelda reasoned. "He didn't know."

"And you didn't know either," Impa said in reply. "So you shouldn't blame yourself. In fact, if you won't accept that he really is the reincarnation of the hero of old, the Hero of the Skies who almost died so that Hyrule could just be born, you could say the goddesses did it to him as well."

"I know it's him," Zelda said as she turned around to face Impa. "It has to be him. I…I have this feeling…I can't explain it."

"Then, help him as you are destined to," Impa implored. "If you so choose to blame yourself for all this, then use this opportunity to make up for it, to reclaim your kingdom."

"And to help him reclaim his youth?" Zelda asked rhetorically. "The years, the months, the days, the minutes he is losing even now? How do I do that?"

Impa sighed.

"How do you know he can't just live happily in the future you will be fighting for?" She asked in reply. "Move forward with the acknowledgement that he sacrificed his childhood for his own peace and happiness? Keep in mind that the choice that you think has been taken away from him is the same choice you seem to be threatening at this very moment. Don't let your guilt get in the way of him choosing his own path. There's no way for you to be so sure that he wouldn't have chosen to pull the sword and take on Ganondorf if you had asked him upfront and there's no way for you to know what he will do when his destiny is at its' end. His happiness is not your responsibility, no matter how guilty you feel for his fate. Please remember that. I must caution you to be careful with this in the future, he may turn out to be more susceptible to your words than you'd otherwise think."

"Don't be preposterous, Impa."

"Preposterous or not, you must accept that both of your childhoods have been stolen by Ganondorf, and you must fight for the freedom to live the rest of your lives in peace. We are in a war now, and Link wouldn't have tried to pull the Master Sword if he weren't ready and willing to fight it."

"You're right," Zelda said as her eyes went sad. "I suppose it is a destiny we must uphold…both of us…at least until Ganondorf has been defeated. Perhaps then I can make up for my mistakes…"

"Until then," Impa started. "You will be kept here, trained in the arts of the Sheikah, stealth, combat, magic. I believe it will be beneficial over the next seven years."

"What about when he wakes up?" Zelda asked.

"When he wakes up, you'll still be here, of course."

"Impa…" Zelda started hesitantly.

"No." Impa stated as her brow furrowed. "I won't have you out in the field, especially when he will be busy awakening the Seven Sages. It's too risky. Ganondorf will be looking for you even more when Link is up and about."

"I won't hear of it," Impa said as she started a walk to the exit.

"Impa, please," Zelda implored as Impa pulled aside the flap of the tent. "I…I have to do something. There has to be some way I can help him."

Impa sighed.

"There's a legend," she started, "ancient composers for the Royal Family. The songs they wrote…they were said to transport the listener across the land, across memories, across even time,"

"Sharp and Flat," Zelda stated, recalling the myth, "the Composer Brothers."

Impa released her hold on the flap before turning to face Zelda.

"Some say it's more than just a story," she continued, Zelda's eyes widening. "That they really are imbued with such magic. If these ancient songs could be found…if you could teach Link to use them to teleport…his escapades would be a lot easier."

Impa took a deep breath before continuing,

"If you're so insistent on helping him, you can journey with me to discover them."

Zelda smiled and said,

"Thank you."

"It will be dangerous," Impa said as her red eyes flared with caution. "You must understand that."

"I understand," Zelda said with a nod before Impa stepped outside.

Zelda bit her lip in thought before following Impa out, saying,

"Wait! Impa…I…I've been wondering…"

"Yes, child…"

"The way I was able to communicate with Link…I know you asked me to think about why that connection exists, but, Impa…I could see him, hear him…if my identity is to be kept a secret, then how can I avoid him seeing me? Realizing who I truly am?"

Impa placed a hand on the girls' shoulder.

"That, I can teach you," Impa said before her expression softened.

"Have you come up with an idea why?"

"No," Zelda replied, "I mean maybe because of the Triforce, but…I don't have a connection like that to Ganondorf…I don't know."

"I have a theory of my own," Impa said with a smile. "But I think it's another story for another time. I'll leave you to your rest."

"Thank you for everything, Impa."

"You're welcome, Sheik."


	5. Spirit

The girl gritted her teeth as she panted heavy breaths, her brow hesitating a crease. She didn't want to show her anger, but it was bursting forth nonetheless, the two knives she held were fisted tightly.

Impa grabbed both her wrists, Zelda resisting the strong push until she couldn't. Her back met the ground and the two knives scattered, spinning out of reach.

"Fight back!" Impa exclaimed forcefully.

"I'm trying," Zelda said in her defense, propped up by her elbows behind her.

"You're hesitating," Impa said, voice sharp. "Just like Ganondorf won't."

The red flame in Zelda's eyes burned more at the mention of his name.

"Oh," Impa teased. "Did that make you angry? Too bad that anger couldn't save the kingdom."

Zelda's breaths heaved as she grabbed her knives and rushed forward towards Impa.

Both of Zelda's strikes were met by the shaft of Impa's spear.

"Better," Impa said as they circled around each other, "but anger isn't everything. It can provide great courage, but that courage must be paired with wisdom and tact. Consider your own resources, and what your enemy does and doesn't have, their weaknesses and your strengths."

Zelda considered her words, taking a deep breath to settle her anger and focus her mind.

In her contemplation, Zelda's eyes suddenly blinked wide, giving a small smirk. As soon as it came, however, another blink of her eyes erased it completely.

Zelda lowered her weapons and stopped circling, Impa doing the same in reaction to the girl's sad expression.

The genuine emotion in it made Impa watch carefully as Zelda approached, now concerned that some grief or guilt had overcome her.

"Impa, I…" Zelda started, now facing Impa with a foot between them.

In a quick motion, Zelda used the nook created from her fisted hands and the knives to yank the spear away from Impa's loose hold.

The knives dropped to the ground as Zelda caught the spear in her hands. Impa's eyes were wide, Zelda whipping the spear around and resting the blade at Impa's neck.

"And also being aware of your own weaknesses, right?"

Impa smirked.

"Very clever," she said. "I suppose you've earned yourself a break."

Zelda moved the spear away from Impa's neck, handing it over to her attendant.

"But you won't survive long out there if you keep acting like you are," Impa said, starting a walk to the well.

"Like what?" Zelda asked, catching up with her stride.

"You act like this is all some nightmare, like you're gonna wake up any second in the life you once knew. You have stop seeing yourself as who you used to be. You can't afford to do that."

"I know," Zelda replied. "It's just hard adjust adjusting a life I didn't see coming. My father was always against militancy."

Impa nodded.

"As your attendant, I was told to teach you of diplomacy and civility, that logic, fairness, and compassion would be your pillars as a child destined for royalty. But, that was a time of peace, and now it seems that peace never truly existed. The ramifications of the Hyrulean Civil War can clearly be seen in Ganondorf and his men. Ganondorf fights with an unreasonable violence in his determination, one like I've never seen before and no well-structured words can appease him. Now that you are in danger, negotiation is no longer relevant, even logic is lost in war. That's why I need you to fight back, because if you don't fight back now, you never will."

* * *

Sheik took a deep breath as she knelt, the sand at her fingertips rough and grainy.

Closing her eyes reminded her of her very first training session, remembering how she gripped the dirt in frustration. The word "again" became grueling to her ears quickly in those early days.

Sheik smiled under her white scarf at the memory, how she was so proud of tricking Impa into letting go of her spear.

But really, Impa probably let the nine year-old have it.

Now sixteen, she knelt waiting for Impa's signal, heaps of leevers behind her with large gashes in their thick skins. Even a lone Stalfos had found her in her hiding, yet he was no match for the trained Sheikah warrior.

The sun had set upon the desert, the orange glow now gone and settling upon a night sky. Like a cucco's caw in the morning's rise, the wolfos' howl had echoed long ago. The moon was high, a mere sliver from being full.

Suddenly, Sheik spotted a glimmer near the base of the temple, flashing on and off, catching moonlight in a purposeful pattern.

Sheik suddenly sprang up, racing along the mountains' side with an unparalleled speed.

But for the yellow hair, no Hyrulean would dispute that she was anyone but a Sheikah warrior. She was just as quick as she was ferocious in battle, a strong fighter with a building talent for magic that even Impa praised.

Exhilarated by the feel of the cool night air, she leapt off the edge, barely feeling the slam of the ground below. Her head bowed for just a second for it came back up.

"You're late," Impa said almost immediately, "and sloppy."

"You were early," Sheik countered as she stood up, "and overcritical, as always."

"At least _something_ you can count on," Impa retorted as she started a cautious walk forward, Sheik scowling before she did the same.

"I'm assuming that all the Gerudo are clear."

"Would I have signaled you if they weren't?"

"Okay, they're clear."

Sheik looked up as they continued, the immense temple they were entering a place she'd never been, let alone heard of.

The tall, elegant statue in front, the architecture that teased a cultural significance she knew not of. It all put in her in awe as she stared in wonder, entering the temple with wide eyes.

Her accumulating questions were stopped almost immediately when Impa held out her arm.

"Be on your guard," Impa said with a slight turn of her head. "And only in this room do you ever stop moving."

"Understood," Sheik said with a nod, Impa lowering her arm to clutch her spear.

As they kept walking, two pots crossed behind them and crashed into the wall they no longer faced. Sheik looked behind her at the smashed pottery, broken by some magic of the temple, surely aiming for them.

"Focus," Impa said, Sheik brought back to the moment.

They were now up the stairs and past the menacing serpent statues.

Old legends said that they were spies for the Gerudo, signaling any intruder activity. But, it must have merely been a scare tactic, as the two Sheikah warriors would have been quickly ambushed by now.

To their right and left were avenues they quickly ignored, a crawlspace fit for the smallest Kokiri on one side and a rock only the largest Goron could move on the other. It seemed a laughable riddle to solve, but they didn't mind the obstacles at all, focusing instead on the wall right before them. They left the obstacles to their own impediments as Impa pressed an ear against the wall, Sheik looking at the map.

"There's definitely a room behind here," Impa said. "This isn't a solid wall."

"Why wouldn't it be marked on the map?" Sheik reasoned. "We took this from their compound."

"Doesn't mean they all trust each other with every bit of information," Impa said as she studied the wall. "I think that ever since Ganondorf rose as king, there's been a great deal of division among them."

Impa sheathed her spear, running her hands and fingers along the wall as Sheik looked behind her for oncoming Gerudo.

Yet, the entrance to the temple was just as sparse as before.

"There," Impa said, pulling Sheik's focus.

In brushing a collection of sand off a particular block, Impa revealed the Gerudo symbol. Two circles, much like a pair of ever-watching eyes that met Sheik's as she turned around, the young warrior kneeling to get a closer look.

She traced the symbol with her fingertips.

"I don't think we should be here," Sheik said, Impa glaring down at her.

"You know why we're here," Impa argued.

"The Royal Family has a non-involvement clause with the Gerudo people, we stay out of their business and they stay out of ours. Just being here breaks that agreement."

"You forget, Sheik," Impa said. "Not only is this a war, but the royalty is not who it used to be. We do this, and those agreements will be back in place."

Sheik nodded, pressing on the stone to realize with raised eyebrows that it was loose.

The stone dropped to the floor on the other side, Sheik standing up quickly in surprise.

"They're definitely going to notice that," Sheik said as Impa put a hand where the stone just was.

She traced the wall in a straight line up, finding another symbol as she brushed away the sand.

"It's no accident," Impa said before pushing the second block through. "It's a way to move the wall."

"Help me with this," Impa said, grasping one of the openings and Sheik grasping the other.

It wasn't long before the wall gave way to their pull, clouds of dust forming as it slid away.

The two pulled it as far as they could before entering the opening created, only a small wooden door in their sights.

As soon as they went through, however, two Gerudo guards had pointed their halberds in unity against them.

"In the name of King Ganondorf," they said unanimously with hatred in their furrowed brow, their yellow eyes. "You are under arrest for trespassing sacred ground."

The Sheikah warriors were silent as they gave a slight smirk, Impa taking a couple steps back.

The Gerudo shared an expression of confusion.

"You are under arrest!" The Gerudo on the right repeated.

Sheik only walked forward a couple steps before the Gerudo swung her halberd, Sheik stopping it with a sharp raise of her hand.

Quickly, she reformed her hand to yank the halberd from the Gerudo's hand. In spinning the halberd above her head, she knocked the first guard to the side, the second guard meeting the blows with the hilt of her own halberd.

The second guard thrusted her halberd forward, yet Sheik flipped back to avoid it. She smirked as she threw the halberd to Impa, now holding the halberd like she was some statue.

Sheik unsheathed two Sheikah knives with a smile, gaining momentum with a few strides before sliding on the ground and knocking the guard off their feet with an outstretched leg.

Before the guard even got the chance to fall to the ground, Sheik kicked upwards right in their chin, incidentally slamming them against the wall and knocking the guard out.

The second guard slunk down the wall as Sheik noticed the first one move on the other side of the room.

Barely a second passed until Sheik threw both her knives on either side of the guards head, the guard in complete shock as Sheik knelt before her.

"I really am sorry," Sheik said before a single punch rendered her and Impa the only conscious beings in the room.

"Better," Impa said as she casually studied the Gerudo halberd.

"Are you sure that was wise?" Sheik asked as she reclaimed her knives. Impa tossed aside the halberd and they both started along the hallway.

"Low-level Gerudo security?" Impa retorted. "They'll probably just lock the door when they wake up."

"Beats Ganondorfs rage, I bet."

Impa nodded.

They soon stepped forward into a room of cylindrical shape. Doors upon doors beckoning to draw them in in their own unique way.

"Do you know which one it is?" Sheik asked.

"Only one way to find out," Impa said, her head gesturing to the first one.

This one was completely black, Sheik running her fingertips along it's smooth edges while Impa crossed her arms.

"In case you need the reminder, there's no time to dawdle."

"Right," Sheik said, opening the door to reveal a room completely enshrouded in darkness. The shadows crept over Sheik as she walked in, them soon completely covering her.

Impa paced to stand guard, withdrawing her spear.

"Is it in there?" Impa inquired. "Sheik?"

"I don't know, it's dark," she heard in reply, "…wait…"

"Sheik?" Impa said almost immediately. "What is it?"

But there was only silence, no reply, no footsteps, no clamor of weaponry, Impa's eyes widening.

"Sheik?!"


	6. Within Reach

"Is it in there?" Impa inquired, "Sheik?"

"I don't know," Sheik replied as she walked along, her eyes narrowing to distinguish anything.

She held out her hands, worried she might crash into some wall, some enemy she couldn't quite see as she walked hesitantly through the bleak darkness.

"Wait…" she said as she spotted a glimmer in the distance.

The shine grew as she came closer, a bright mirror soon in her sights.

She wondered how she didn't see it before as she looked into it. Her own red eyes peered and burned into her very soul until her reflection completely disappeared. Sheik took a step back in surprise at the nothing she saw until some other form started to take shape, churning within a wispy cloud of grey smoke.

"Sheik," she heard, echoing into what seemed a million whispers. Her curiosity dampened her caution as the repeating whispers subsided.

Her eyes trailed slowly as her new reflection appeared, Sheik taking a shaky inhale at the sight of her feet, her knees, her waist, all the way up to her eyes as she remained transfixed in awe.

Red eyes met blue as she stared, calloused hand meeting soft hand as she touched the mirror.

What was before her was all she ever wanted, Sheik releasing a tear in seeing herself as Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule.

She still felt the tight sheikah bodice, the wrappings that concealed her identity, strapping her in to the reality she didn't want. She knew what she saw had to be an illusion of some sort, no tiara truly adorned her head, no gloves really concealed her arms, but it was so captivating that she couldn't help being drawn in.

The person she saw was in a royal pink dress, a smile on her face, and a brightness in her blue eyes. The tears Sheik felt had not befallen the princess' cheeks, nor had the look of sadness and worry.

She felt something odd overcome her, like a creeping shadow.

This was her, the person she wasn't allowed to be. She didn't want to leave as a chill ran through her spine, as she sensed something descending upon her.

She placed another hand on the mirror before she was pinned down completely by something she couldn't recognize.

Snapped out of the trance, she quickly tried to escape, yet it seemed the more she did, the more the trap closed in around her.

She felt herself being lifted as something sharp dug itself into her back. Sheik cried out in pain, it feeling like claws were trying to tear apart her back and rip her into two.

"Hey!" She heard Impa exclaim before a creature shrieked in anguish, Sheik feeling herself fall to the ground with a thud that almost knocked the wind out of her.

She just focused on her breathing as she laid on the ground, in and out, in and out. It was all she could control, after all, the ringing in her ears deafening any sound, the loss of feeling in her back muting the sensation of touch.

* * *

"Sheik," was the first thing she heard when she came to, starting to feel her back against a wall and opening her eyes to a warm light.

Impa was right before her, a concern in her red eyes as her hand clamped Sheik's shoulder. Her vision was blurry, Sheik barely able to distinguish her attendant looking from right to left.

"Come on," she said eagerly. "We don't have time for this. Get up!"

"What happened?" Sheik asked, wincing as her full consciousness returned.

They were back in the main room, that door to the darkness now shut tight.

Goddesses, did her back sting.

"Remember what I said about always moving?"

"Yeah," Sheik prompted as Impa helped her up to standing, helping her walk along.

"You didn't listen," Impa stated. "If it weren't for me, the Wallmaster would have gotten you."

"I got distracted," Sheik argued. "There was a mirror."

Impa sighed.

"There's probably all sorts of relics down here. We just have to find the one we need, and that doesn't endanger us."

"Of course," Zelda said with a shake of her head. "I'm sorry."

"Here's the next door," Impa said, prompting Sheik to use what strength she had and look up at it. "For your sake, I hope it's in here."

Impa opened the door, while still holding up Sheik.

The Sheikah warrior breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a fully-lit room with an inscription at it's end.

"Sheik," she said. "This is it, we found it."

"The Requiem of Spirit?" Sheik asked, her voice strained.

"Get out your harp," Impa commanded, "quickly."

* * *

"Almost there…"

"There we go…nice and easy now…"

Sheik winced where she was put down at the campfire, bracing herself with a hand on the ground.

Her back really was torn to shreds, the Wallmaster's claws cutting straight through to her skin. In the light of the campfire, Impa could clearly see five deep gashes, three on one side and two on the other.

"Is it bad?" Sheik asked hesitantly.

"Nothing too serious," Impa said as she studied the cuts. "You aren't bleeding, but they'll still make for some nasty scars. Not to mention returning to the village to get clothes that aren't torn."

Sheik nodded with tightly shut eyes, the water Impa poured to cleanse the wounds stinging sharply.

"That won't take too long, will it?" she asked, her voice strained.

"You know it's less than a day's journey from here," Impa answered. "You in a hurry to get somewhere?"

"No," Sheik replied. "Of-of course not."

Impa continued to nurse the wounds, Sheik focusing her gaze beyond the campfire as she tried to ignore the pain.

The former Princess looked out at Hyrule, it's silhouette lined with the soft orange of an inclining sunrise. It seemed as if nothing had changed in her kingdom, that hundreds upon thousands of years from now, the horizon of the castle in the distance would be the same.

Her heart sank thinking of Ganondorf in her father's castle, of her people cast away, of the fires of a war she knew was coming, the blood already shed.

"Out with it, Sheik," Impa said, Sheik pulled out of her train of thought. "How much longer? I know you keep track."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sheik said, shaking her head.

"Yes, you do."

There was a silence as Sheik paused.

"About thirty-two hours now…"

"And you want to go," Impa stated.

Sheik closed and opened her eyes with a sigh.

"Yes."

"We talked about this," Impa said with a shake of her head.

"I'm going to have to see him eventually," Sheik reasoned. "Why does it matter when?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Impa countered.

"I…" Sheik started, not entirely sure where to take her words.

"You know the risks," Impa said. "It's one thing to teach him songs far into the woods or deep in the volcano, but the Temple of Time is right on Ganondorf's doorstep. He _will_ be watching Link, _and_ you in consequence."

Sheik's gaze went downcast.

"It's been seven years that I've missed him," Sheik said quietly. "Can you blame me for wanting to see him?"

Impa's expression melted.

"No," she replied. "All I can do is caution you."

Sheik's eyes furrowed.

"Caution…" she started. "You're…you're letting me go?"

"Something has come up in Kakariko," Impa started to explain. "I noticed it when we were there last week. If left unchecked…"

Impa's fear stalled her words.

"I have no choice but for you to meet Link, to leave you to your own safety."

Sheik was stunned.

"It is apparent you can handle yourself."


	7. Awakening

Sheik clutched her golden harp as she sat on the pedestal, the stone steps cold and uninviting.

For years and years she had waited for this day with excitement. Finally, everything would start to come to an end, the guilt she felt, for her kingdom, for her father, for Link.

She could finally start making up for the harm she'd caused, the lives she'd ruined. Her own included.

She was now at the age where ideas of stepping forth as Queen would be approaching, her father stepping down and letting a nobleman take her hand in marriage.

She would have been brought up completely at the castle, prepared meals, laundered blankets, exemplary riches at every turn, tailored dresses specially made for her. Unthinkable luxuries she took for granted.

She would have never known the sweat and the grime of a day training with Impa, the sensation of bleeding and having to just ignore it, the fatigue that drooped her onto the ground every night as she slept and seemed to remain when she got up the next morning.

Her dreams had become more and more difficult to distinguish, Sheik finding herself forgetting them completely, or perhaps remembering only a few words spoken by an ethereal voice.

"Zelda, remain strong."

"Zelda, it's okay."

"Zelda, don't give up hope."

She tried to believe them as the years went by.

The Princess dressed as a sheikah was surprised to find herself nervous as she sat in the large chamber, shaking anxiously.

She stood quickly as an instinct to try to alleviate her anxiety, attempting a deep breath in and out. Putting away her harp, she shook her hands unceremoniously, as if the nerves would be shaken away as she tried again to calm her breathing.

She reminded herself that she couldn't have an emotional reaction to seeing him for the first time in seven years, she's not supposed to know him, after all.

All she had to do was look and speak with as much apathy as she could, to combat the opposite things she felt inside.

Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly spotted a gleam of blue light, shimmering into a growing cylinder.

Sheik hastened to kneel behind the large tear of the pedestal, watching with a held breath as a form started to appear.

She took a deep breath as she watched him from the shadows, looking to his right and left, the same bright fairy floating above him.

Link, after all these years.

What a hero he turned out to be.

"Link," the fairy said. "We're back in the Temple of Time…but have seven years really passed?"

"It…" Link started as he inspected his hands, now covered by leather gloves. "It would appear so."

"It looks like you won't be able to use some of the weapons you found as a kid anymore…"

"Right," Link replied as he lowered his hands, a twinge of surprise in his expression from hearing his lowered voice.

"Let's get out of here!" Navi said, flying away eagerly. "No time to waste!"

Sheik stood up slowly as Link turned around, pacing quietly when he started towards the door.

She made it just in front of the Master Swords' pedestal when he stopped, Sheik trying to keep a neutral expression when he drew his sword, when he turned around, when she saw the surprise in his face,

The unfamiliarity that Link's eyes settled on made her heart break.

"I've been waiting for you, Hero of Time…" she said with as much apathy as she could muster.

She wanted so much to reveal herself as Princess Zelda, for him to look at her with any sort of regard, but to do that would be to risk Ganondorf discovering her as well, not to mention her own fear that he would look upon her with hatred.

"When evil rules all," she started. "An awakening voice from the Sacred Realm will call those destined to be Sages, who dwell in the five temples: one in a deep forest, one on a high mountain, one under a vast lake, one within the house of the dead, one inside a goddess of the sand. Together with the Hero of Time, the awakened ones will bind the evil and return the light of peace to the world. This is the legend of the temples passed down by my people, the Sheikah."

"I am Sheik. Survivor of the Sheikahs…"

"As I see you standing there holding the mythical Master Sword, you really do look like the legendary Hero of Time."

Sheik cleared her throat in response to how soft her voice was becoming, and she was glad that the thick, white scarf covered her smile.

She didn't want Impa's cautions about her not being ready for this task to be true. She wanted to help Link more than anything.

"If you believe the legend," she continued as she crossed her arms. "You have no choice. You must look for the five temples and awaken the five Sages. One Sage is waiting for the time of awakening in the Forest Temple. The Sage is a girl I am sure you know."

"Saria…" Link whispered as his eyes widened, lighting up with familiarity.

"The very same," Sheik said as she nodded. "Because of the evil power in the temple, she cannot hear the awakening call from the Sacred Realm. Unfortunately, equipped as you currently are, you cannot even enter the temple. But, if you believe what I'm saying, you should head to Kakariko Village. Do you understand, Link?"

"Yes," he replied with a nod.

"Exercise caution, Link. We need your courage," Sheik said before disappearing into the shadows, an old Sheikah trick that made Link look around, surprised at her sudden absence.

Yet, she only stood a bit farther from him as she watched him give a quizzical look before turning to face the exit.

Sheik's eyebrows furrowed with intrigue when he didn't walk forward, simply standing still.

"Zelda," he said, her eyes widening when she heard it and saw that his eyes were shut tight.

"Zelda," he repeated, his utterance not only echoing about the walls of the temple, but also in the mind of the hidden Princess. Sheik brought her hand to her mouth to stop herself from responding, from screaming, from crying as she backed away slowly, her back meeting a shadowed wall.

The first thing he did once he had the chance…

Was talk to her.

"Zelda, please," he continued desperately. "Are you okay? Why can't I see you? Please, just…let me know that you are alive…that I didn't screw all this up at the expense your life…"

"Please…" he whispered in the silence that followed, Sheik's back sliding down the wall until her knees bent in front of her.

Her hands were clammy with how hard they pressed against her mouth, how wet the teardrops made them.

Link slowly opened his eyes and said,

"I should have asked Sheik about her."

"I'm sure she's okay," Navi replied.

"You don't know that," Link said as he walked out of the chamber, unaware of the crying Princess in the shadows.


	8. Close Call

"Link!" Navi chimed as she fluttered in shock, aghast at his condition.

She flew to him quickly, hastily bounding up and down his unconscious frame.

"No, no, no, no, no," she said in her panic, finally settling near his shoulder.

"Link, wake up!" She exclaimed as she shoved his cheek as best she could. From a distance, it looked as if a bright ball of light was hitting his cheek.

Yet, his head only barely budged at her advances.

"Link, you fool!" Navi continued as her frustration built, landing near his ear. "Listen! You have to wake up!"

"What happened?" a deeper voice asked.

As if from nowhere Sheik appeared in a kneel, standing up to reveal his trademark dull red eyes.

Navi grimaced. Of course he shows up after all that. If Link had help during the fight, he would be just fine.

"I don't know," Navi started as Sheik approached, kneeling at his side and feeling his pulse, inspecting his face, his head. "He just passed out after defeating Volvagia. He i—"

"His tunic is torn," Sheik interrupted as he ran his fingers across a large cut in the red cloth. "I need to get him out of the volcano."

Navi held back her objections, knowing that a fairy like her was in no shape to carry Link. Even when he was a child that would have been quite a feat.

She hated that Link needed Sheik.

"Come on, Link," Sheik said as he picked him up, with more ease that Navi expected.

Link really was out of it, his body limp as a doll as he was carried.

Navi eagerly met Sheik's speed when he started running out of the caverns of the volcano, worry not leaving her face. She asked Sheik all sorts of questions that he didn't seem to humor.

Sheik merely treated the fairy as a flea in the many instances, batting away her inquiries with a quick "he's fine" or "don't worry."

It wasn't long before they made it out of the cavern, Sheik whispering in calm and quiet tones,

"We're almost there, Link…please just hang on a little longer."

It was obvious Navi didn't hear Sheik's pleas, or else she surely would have commented on the odd change in his voice.

Sheik rushed into the fairy fountain, placing Link gently before it with a melted expression.

"Navi," he started, looking behind him to the approaching fairy. "Go get Impa. She's in Kakariko Village."

"I'm supposed to stay with Link," she started whiningly. "We're partners."

Sheik sighed with a hint of impatience in his breath.

"Do as I say and Link will be back on his feet in no time."

Navi's face scrunched in her hesitation.

They were in a fairy fountain, and Sheik was a member of the Sheikah tribe. He shouldn't need Impa at all.

"Please," Sheik implored.

Navi gave a nod Sheik didn't see before zooming off towards Kakariko.

Sheik closed his eyes as his focus returned to Link, opening them as they sank completely.

He reached up his hand and loosened the scarf that muffled his speech, breathing desperately as if emerging from a deep lake, deprived of air.

For the Princess, it really was such a relief, the deep and dark chasm of false identity a reality she had been drowning in for years.

Zelda felt her eyes water as she pulled Link onto her lap, bringing a soft hand to his cheek.

"Link…I…" Zelda started, her own voice achingly familiar. "I'm so sorry for all this."

She looked at the cut and bruises on his face, the scuffs, slashes, and burns on his clothes, how defeated he looked even in his unconscious state.

She remembered with regret how tired he looked even when she taught him the Bolero of Fire, how much she wanted to scoop him up into her arms like she was now, to tell him how sorry she was for causing him so much pain, and that sometime there would be day where he wouldn't know pain.

Zelda looked up at the fairy fountain before her in its' elegance as she clutched Link, the transcendent and ethereal lighting reflecting in her damp, red eyes.

"Oh, Great Fairy of the Eastern Mountain, I…I beg…"

"Disregard my actions, my poor judgements on behalf of Hyrule and come before us only on account of his actions."

"Please…only you can heal him…his pulse is weak…he bleeds much…he…he needs a miracle…much like Hyrule."

"Please…" she begged as she looked back down to Link, a tear forming from her red eye and dropping upon his cheek as it continued to roll.

Suddenly there boomed a large laugh throughout the echoing fountain, Zelda looking up with a hopeful gasp.

From the very center emerged a lady, growing and spinning bigger and bigger until she was giant, leaning her chin on her hands as she floated above the rippling fountain.

Zelda had only seen Great Fairies in pictures, reality quite suited to the mythos described in fairytales. Her hair floated as if in water, her hylian-like body covered in an ivy of a deep green, and her entire being sparkled with a other-worldly essence.

"Do not despair, Princess," the Great Fairy said in a soothing voice that calmed even the rugged Sheikah warrior. "Even if not for your hero's deeds, your own would warrant my blessings all on their own."

With a simple gesture, a stream of sparkling magic ascended from the fairy's hand to enshroud Link, healing his burns, his cuts, his bruises. His breathing became more stable along with his pulse.

Somehow, it even lifted his fatigue, as a certain color and brightness returned to his features, like at any moment he would wake up with a smile.

"Thank you," Zelda said. "Thank you so much."

"Our hero is resilient," the Great Fairy said. "He will persevere, just as he is destined to."

"Yes," Zelda said in reply. "He will."

Link gave a soft smile in his slumber.

"Teehee, it seems you have a soothing voice yourself, Princess."

Zelda looked up at the Great Fairy in her curiosity.

"Well," she added with amusement, "at least to him."

The Great Fairy departed much like she first arrived, with a spin and a great laugh, soon all that was left being a small ripple in the fountain.

"Link," Zelda started regretfully as she backed away, Link's backside gently meeting the ground. "I…I have to go. You'll be awake soon…and my identity must be kept secret."

She hesitated her next words. Zelda knew she had little time and much to say, so very many things to say to him.

"Keep going Link," she said softly, cupping his cheek. "There will be peace someday, for Hyrule and for you…"

"I promise…" she whispered, her head inches above his, before she touched her lips to his forehead with closed eyes.

She opened her eyes as she came back up, keeping her sorrowful expression on Link as she pulled her white scarf back over her mouth.

Zelda stood up as Sheik, diving back into the place she didn't want to be. Dark and damp, her emotions hidden, her wants, her desires, her true self, hidden by the mask of red eyes and the pretense of being the opposite gender.

Her tears disappeared as she did, Link stirring to an empty cavern.

"Zelda," he mumbled deliriously.


	9. Consequence

Link opened his eyes in a place he didn't know, a pair of red eyes staring unwaveringly at him and him only.

"Where am I?" he asked as he sat up slowly, Impa blurring and moving in strange ways until she came into focus.

"Kakariko," Impa answered curtly.

Link furrowed his brow.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"Depends," Impa said, leaning forward. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Defeating Volvagia I guess…" Link answered, Impa hiding a sigh a relief. "But how did I get to Kakariko?"

"Your tunic was cut in the fight," Impa replied. "It no longer protected you from the heat, not to mention your other injuries. You passed out. You were brought here after you were healed at a fairy fountain."

"Makes sense," Link voiced casually.

"The portal to the Sacred Realm won't hold for much longer," Impa continued as she stood up. "You must return to the volcano and claim the medallion from Darunia before Ganondorf takes notice."

"Right," Link said with a nod, starting to prepare his belt, his boots.

Impa turned to leave, making it to the door before she was stopped by a hesitant,

"Impa."

The Sheikah didn't move a muscle, only stopping, her back turned to Link.

"Do you know where Zelda is?"

"Why do you ask?" Impa inquired turning her head to her shoulder.

"No particular reason, I just…I'm worried…I haven't seen or heard…anything…"

"Just tell me if she's alive…I can take the truth."

"Don't concern yourself with the Princess, Link."

"But…"

Impa suddenly leveled him with a distinct glare, Link leaning back.

"Link!" Navi said, entering in the silence, the palpable tension. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah…" he said as he watched Impa leave with a nod.

"I'm fine," he continued, Link leaving for Death Mountain with the volumes that that red glare spoke.

* * *

"I know what you're gonna say, Impa," Sheik started as Impa paced before her. "That I was impulsive…and reckless…and that I still could have gotten caught at the fairy fountain. Even for just helping Link so directly Ganondorf could have seen me as a threat…but he was dying, Impa."

Impa sighed.

"He needed you in that moment," Impa finally said. "It was risky, but necessary."

"If you understand, then why do you look so disappointed?"

Impa paused.

"He wouldn't stop saying your name."

"Really?" Sheik replied.

Impa looked at her with disbelief at the way she said it.

She was almost excited.

"I…I mean," Sheik said with her slightly lowered voice, "that's very interesting."

"For goodness sake, Sheik," Impa said. "How blind do you think I am?"

"What are you talking about?" Sheik asked.

Impa scoffed.

"Impa, what are you talking about?" Sheik repeated.

"You need to keep your feelings under control."

* * *

**Author's Note: I know, I know, short chapter. Time is a precious thing and I lack it. **

**Longer chapters to come.**


	10. Reveal

"And the other, who holds the Triforce of Wisdom," she said as her gaze finally locked into his, for the first time in seven years. "Is the Seventh Sage, who is destined to…"

Her words trailed away when Link's brow started to knit in an apparent confusion, his head tilting ever so slightly.

His lips parted for just a second, a moment of contemplation before he stammered,

"Y-your eyes…"

"What about my eyes?"

"They're," Link replied, his voice oddly weak. "They're…blue…"

"They are?!" Sheik asked, so shocked at what Link saw that she forgot completely to tone down her voice to sound like a male.

It was shrill, it was high, and it was familiar, Sheik bringing both her hands to her mouth mere seconds after her exclamation.

Link's eyes widened greatly at the revelation, a shaky exhale out of his lungs and a small tear from his eye as his feet brought him a couple steps forward.

_Just an old fairytale that all illusions dispel in the midst of true love…_

Impa's words echoed in her mind as it all unraveled, the sheikah wrappings, the bodice. As if prompted by some mysterious magic, a dress soon replaced them, Zelda looking down at herself in surprise, her feet lifting inches above the ground.

She hadn't thought about those words in years, a warm feeling settling inside her as she felt gloves as well, and a tiara atop her head, a sensation that was sorely new for a warrior of the Sheikahs.

When her feet returned to the floor, stable on the stones of the Temple of Time, she looked up to see Link completely bewildered, his eyes still wide and his lips parted even more.

"Oh goddesses, Link," she started quickly as she stepped forward. "I'm so sorry, I…I didn't want to lie to you, really I didn't…it was jus—"

It was sudden, and it stopped her words completely, but it was warm and comforting.

The Princess' arms floated at her sides as Link kept his tight hold on her, his arms wrapping even further as his exhale brought his head down into the crook of her neck.

It was hard for her to recall the last time she had been hugged like this, surely not in the past seven years.

"I was so worried about you," Link said.

Zelda was utterly deflated by it all, soon giving in and returning the embrace.

She reveled in just the feel of his tunic, clamping her eyelids shut as her fingers curled around the fabric.

"I guess I didn't need to be," he said as he let her go, yet his hands were still on her arms. "I suppose I worked myself up a bit too much."

"That's an understatement," Link heard Navi say. The glare she received from Link afterwards prompted her to fly off to the other side of the temple with a scoff and rolled eyes.

She waited with crossed arms, her back turned to them with a petulant frustration scrunching her tiny face. Navi knew Link well enough by now to know that the look she received meant that he wanted her away, even just for the moment.

"I just…I can't believe it's really you," Link said. "All that time…"

"I know," Zelda said. "And I'm so sorry for meeting you in disguise but…"

Link nodded when her words trailed away, his arms returning to his sides.

"You needed to be safe from Ganondorf," he said with a small smile, his eyes kind. "I understand."

"You forgive too easily," Zelda said with a shake of her head.

"Only when it is just."

"Link…what I've caused," she started. "Subjecting my kingdom to suffering…subjecting you to suffering…all because I instructed you to open the Sacred Realm…it is a horrid and selfish thing that I've done. And all the while I waited for your return, wanting so much to see you, and…for you to see me."

"For seven years I waited for such a selfish fantasy."

"But…" Link started walking forward. "I have returned…to help you, no less, to end all of this."

He reached out and clasped his hand into hers.

"It's no fantasy," he said, Zelda closing her eyes at the sensation.

She nodded in the acknowledgement of his words.

"Then you will need this."

Zelda stepped back, her hand slipping away from Link's as a golden light started to envelop her, the sheen reflecting off of Link's wide blue eyes.

She raised her arms for a glowing yellow orb to appear between her hands, arrows that shone with a similar golden luminescent light soon finding themselves between Link's hands.

"These arrows drive away darkness," Zelda said in Link's awe. "Much like fire melts away ice, they are a conduit of opposition. The adversary of darkness will light the way."

"But," she continued after Link had put the arrows away, his glance resting on her blue eyes. She walked forward before placing a hand on his chest, her eyes focused only on her hand. "Never forget your greatest strength, never forget that you have a courageous soul and…a kind heart…"

Her words faded as she looked up, her eyes meeting his.

They lingered just a second before Link felt himself tossed backwards, hitting the stone floor behind him with a rather strong thud. The wind was almost knocked out of him as he fell to the ground by a force he couldn't explain, his eyes squinting and his expression wincing at the sensation, at the pain in his back.

That was sure to leave a bruise.

Yet, he longer felt it when he quickly clambered to kneel, rushing forward with a run when he saw the Princess trapped by a pink crystal.

But he was too late.

She was now in the very clutches of Ganondorf, the King of Evil.

_A cautionary tale, really…love can be as much of a weakness as a strength. It's a vulnerability we Sheikah can't afford when we are out in the field…_


	11. Concern

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay on this one. I wanted to make it better and that required a bit more time. Not as late as I thought it would be though.**

* * *

Link panted as they exited the crumbling castle, bringing his hands to his bent knees.

But for the fatigue, he would have asked how in Hyrule Zelda was able to run that fast, forgetting for the moment that she was a trained Sheikah warrior.

Yet, there was no time for passing conversation, Link looking behind him to see Ganon's castle truly descend into dust and ruin. The small bridges flaked off as flames erupted along it's edges. His breathing started to slow as the tower fell from whence it came, soon all that was left a flat arena of sand. Only small bits of the castle peeked out above, making it hard to believe a stone tower had only just a few minutes ago, stood tall.

"It's over," he heard Zelda say beside him as he stood up. "It's finally over."

Link looked over to Zelda with a smile at those words, the Princess mesmerized by seeing him with such a gleeful expression. It was almost a chuckle, Zelda smiling as well.

His blue eyes were so bright, it was as if he'd never seen a day of battle, the way he looked at her.

Zelda inhaled to remark at the anomaly.

"Link," Navi said above them, interrupting the moment as they looked up. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you in the battle before!"

Link nodded at the fairy in reply.

Suddenly the ground shook with a great force, Link instinctively placing his arm before Zelda and stepping in front her with a sheathed sword.

His heart started to beat with panic, Zelda noticing the shaky way he held his sword.

No threat before him and anxiety had already settled upon him. Zelda looked at his trembling hand with concern and sadness as she considered what she had done to him.

"Link…" she started slowly.

"Stay back," he commanded with a look over his shoulder. "This isn't over yet."

Link took cautious steps forward, eyeing the rubble before him, the ruins of the tower.

"I knew it couldn't be that easy," Link muttered.

Suddenly, a column of fire erupted behind him, Link looking behind him to see Zelda behind it, separating them.

He only had the time to make eye contact before a large boom made him turn back around.

Ganondorf suddenly erupted from a pile of rubble, Link clutching the hilt of his sword tighter, his eyebrows furrowing, seething with determination.

The clouds grey and the sky dark, Link could only see his glowing orange eyes, the Triforce of Power on the back of his hand. Ganondorf showed it proudly, flaunting his success. It made the courageous blood within Link boil, that the golden goddesses would prove him worthy of anything. There is power beyond malice, there must be.

The demon king started to surge with a glowing blue light, Link forced to avert his gaze with squinting eyes and a raised arm.

When Link looked back up, he was shocked to see Ganondorf transformed into a pig-like monster. Link staggered back at the sight of sharp tusks, at the large swords as big as himself.

Zelda brought her hands to her mouth as Ganon thrashed around his knives, her eyes widening as he came closer and closer to Link.

"Zelda!" She heard as Link's sword was tossed from his grip. "Watch out!"

Luckily Zelda saw it coming, rolling to the side in a quick motion to avoid the sword being plunged in the rock she once stood.

"Link!" She exclaimed as she stood back up. "I'll be fine! Don't worry about me! You can do this!"

Link took a deep breath in and out, pulling out the Megaton Hammer.

He could do this.

* * *

The boundary of fire finally dispelled as Ganon let out a shriek of pain, Link putting away his hammer.

"Link!" He heard her call, Link turning his head. "The Master Sword is here! Hurry up!"

She didn't need to tell him twice, Link already sprinting towards her and pulling out the sword as soon as he arrived.

Zelda's heart nearly broke when she saw him, barely recognizing him from the smiling boy of just a few moments ago.

His eyes were sunken and dull, and Link could barely meet her glance. Even the way he held himself, like he could collapse at any second, the cuts and burns on his tunic that were now on his face, his arms. Zelda started to tear up at her guilt.

He just looked so tired.


	12. In the Clouds

"Thank you, Link," Zelda started, the two of them standing atop the clouds. "Thanks to you, Ganondorf has been sealed inside the Evil Realm. Thus, peace will once again reign in this world…for a time."

A fact which should have consoled her, should have brought peace to her heart.

Yet, instead she felt a terrible guilt for what it had cost her kingdom, her hero. The scratches and bruises she saw on his face all she could think about. Not one thought on what it had cost her, what she owed to herself.

She turned her head to her left shoulder, averting her glance from his. She felt so ashamed at her prior lack of wisdom in the years past as she closed her eyes, placing her hand on her heart.

"All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing," she continued. "I was so young…I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it too. Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes. You must lay the Master Sword to rest and close the Door of Time…However, by doing this, the road between times will be closed…"

"Link, give the Ocarina to me," she said as she extended out her hand. "As a Sage, I can return you to your original time with it."

Zelda's eyes went sad as Link slowly placed the ocarina in her palm, trying to keep her composure when he kept his hand where it was. The Princess took a forced inhale and exhale when his fingertips touched her hand.

But really, it was a coincidence. It couldn't have meant anything.

At least that's what she told herself. Surely as a justification for what she felt needed to be done.

She brushed it off like she brushed off the light in his eyes when she revealed herself as Zelda, or the panic in his expression when he tried to break her free of that crystal. Or even the first time she saw him smile being when he smiled at her, that small moment of peace they shared in the midst of the battle.

Zelda's eyes remained sad, forlorn as she placed her hand on top of his. She didn't notice the surprise in his expression, the raise in his eyebrows that softened when he started to feel concerned for her.

"When peace returns to Hyrule," Zelda said, her voice shaky. "It will be time for us to say goodbye…"

Zelda let go of his hand reluctantly and held the Ocarina close to her chest.

"Now, go home, Link. Regain your lost time!"

"Home…where you are supposed to be…the way you are supposed to be…"

Link's lips parted as he inhaled to speak, Zelda noticing with intrigue, curious if he was going to say 'no' or 'stop' if perhaps this wasn't what he truly wanted.

Yet, she insisted within herself in that moment, their blue eyes locked into each other, that it must be what he wants.

To go back to his childhood, to reclaim those years she took away from him. This was his chance to live his own life, and not survive for her sake.

It wouldn't be fair for her to keep him here for selfish reasons.

She had done enough damage to her kingdom and to Link thinking that way, thinking foolishly.

Zelda kept her fixed gaze upon Link as he closed his mouth, obviously changing his mind,

She knew the feeling quite well, ignoring the selfish words she so much wanted to say to him as she slowly put the Ocarina to her lips.

But the very fact that Link wasn't saying anything, that the horrors he had been through on his journey to save Hyrule had dulled him to that form of expression, ensured her that it was her responsibility to relieve him of that pain.

Zelda closed her eyes as she began to play 'Zelda's Lullaby', not wanting any more to see Link before her.

It was already too painful knowing he would soon be gone, and soon she couldn't hide her emotions.

Her eyes watered as she opened them, the song she played at its' end and a magic starting to form around the valiant swordsman.

Zelda felt an instinct within her rise up as he was lifted up, the instinct to pull him back down, to hug him, to kiss him while she had the chance, to tell him everything.

Tears escaped her eyes as she reminded herself that she just couldn't, that it wasn't fair to him. It didn't matter to her that it wasn't fair to herself.

"Thank you, Link," she whispered. "Good-bye…"

She brought her hand to her mouth as he disappeared in a shaft of light, her tears falling rather quickly as she felt her heart breaking, her soul tearing. She could hardly breathe as she felt like something deep inside her had been ripped away.

Zelda crumbled to her knees, not even noticing that the ground underneath them was made of stone, and not clouds.

"What have I done?" She asked herself between sobs as she curled over her knees. "What…what have I done?"

There was an odd feeling deep inside of her now, that what she had just done was horrible, that she had condemned him to something she couldn't begin to imagine.

What if it wasn't what he wanted to go back?

Why didn't she ask?

For goddesses sake, why is it only coming to her now to have asked.

"You okay, Miss?" she heard someone ask, soon feeling a presence kneeling before her and a warm hand on her shoulder.

She looked up and saw a girl about the same age as her, the concern in her expression apparent when she saw the redness around Zelda's eyes.

Zelda only had the composure to shake her head 'no', eliciting the girl with red hair to take a shaky breath at the hopelessness, the despair she saw in Zelda's eyes.

"Come along," she said as she brought the Princess to standing. "Everything is going to be okay."

The girl led Zelda to an empty storage room before sitting her down gently. Her expression remained soft with concern as she watched Zelda cry into her hands.

"Now, what's the matter?" the girl asked. "Are you hurt? Can I get you anything?"

Zelda raised her head slightly, trying to wipe away her tears as she shook her head.

Yet it was no use, a resurgence of tears coming before Zelda said in a small voice,

"I love him."

"Who?" The girl asked with a kind and calming voice, trying to help her to at least work through whatever has her so distraught. "Who do you love?"

Zelda tried to sniffle away her tears before replying with,

"Link."

Zelda felt herself flush with warmth when she said his name. Yet, there was no point in the embarrassment any longer, in the restraint. He no longer existed, the frustration of that fact and her role in it apparent in her voice.

"Link?" the girl retorted as she recalled the name. "That…swordsman?"

"What if I've ruined his life?" Zelda asked rhetorically, ignoring the girl's inquiry, unable to contain her rambling, cyclical thoughts. "What was I thinking?"

"Ruined his…" the girl started. "What are you talking about?"

"Goddesses, I really messed up this time," Zelda said as she once again tried to wipe away her tears with her inner wrist. "I just can't do anything right. Every time I think I finally have a grasp on the right thing to do…I'm endlessly proven wrong."

"Now, I'm sure that's not true," Zelda heard in reply, almost laughing as the red-haired girl tried to console her without context. She had no idea what a horrid thing she'd just done, that the girl she was trying to comfort didn't deserve it.

"What's your name?" The red-haired girl inquired. "Maybe I've heard of you."

The Princess gave a slight chuckle as she met the girl's blue eyes, her own surely red and puffy.

She buried her face into a hand, wanting so much for all this to be some nightmare, for her to wake up as Sheik in the days before she revealed herself to Link, or as a little girl, scared in a camp she didn't know, about to learn that her father had been killed, or even as a young child, who was simply having a second dream after the one about a boy from the forest.

Link existed back then.

Her father was alive, too.

She supposed it was only right that her punishment for ruining their lives was to suffer in the timeline where that change was all too clear to see.

Perhaps the goddesses were punishing her for not being wise enough.

Perhaps, and this is what the girl across from her was starting to think, she was punishing herself more than any one else could.

"Zelda," the Princess said with apparent spite.

"Zelda…" she heard the girl repeat, the Princess able to tell that the revelation was just around the corner.

"Zelda," the girl said again as her eyes widened. "P-Princess Zelda? You're Princess Zelda?!"

Zelda only nodded, her face still in her hand, as if she had some great headache, or she was hiding herself in shame, the latter quite probable.

"It was said you went missing," the girl continued. "The kingdom going in disarray in your absence, until Link saved it, of course. My father is organizing a celebration at the ranch this evening. You're more than welcome to come, Your Highness."

She didn't feel much like celebrating, really.

"Thank you, but…" Zelda tilted her head back up before continuing. "I…I can't."

"Why not?" The red-haired girl asked.

The Princess paused, blinking a couple times, the girl before her still heartbroken at the dullness in her eyes, the sadness.

"Because of Link?" She asked, Zelda keeping her silence as her eyes focused on the stone floor at her feet. "What in Hyrule happened, Your Highness? That you can't celebrate with your people?"

She could tell that Zelda's look was guarded.

The red-haired girl held out her hand and said,

"My name is Malon."

Zelda looked up and shook it hesitantly, so used to avoiding physical contact by now, taught to be cold to others for her own safety, to keep her identity secret.

"You can trust me," Malon said with sincerity.


	13. Realization

"He could have said something," Malon argued.

"I…I barely gave him a chance," Zelda admitted. "I was trying so hard to give him his life back. How could I not see that by not giving him a choice…I…I've taken it away all over again. I can't believe I was foolish enough to not give him a choice. How could I assume…?"

"You can't do that to yourself," Malon insisted. "For all you know, it was what he wanted. It wasn't your responsibility."

Zelda shook her head before burying her face in her hands.

"But it was," Zelda stated, a silence shared between the both of them.

Malon had observed how stubborn the Princess was in needing to blame herself. She knew she couldn't help her. She was just a farm girl after all.

"I trust you'll be discrete about all this," Zelda said as she lifted her head up. "The crying…the truth of what happened and why…I can't appear weak, especially now."

"Of course, Princess," Malon said, her expression softening.

Zelda laughed at herself just a bit and said,

"Not everyday you comfort the estranged Princess of Hyrule on condemning the hero she's in love with, huh?"

"Nope," Malon said. "But I'm not really surprised about you and the swordsman. I hope it won't bother you too much for me to say that the pair of you would have been well matched. After all, he wasn't bad to look at and, from what I hear, he left quite the string of hearts along his journey. Unrequited love, as far as I know, but I spend most of my time at the ranch, so…"

"What do you mean?" Zelda asked as she furrowed her brow.

* * *

Zelda took a deep breath as she walked up the inclining walkway, her anxiety building greatly.

"Princess Zelda?" she heard as soon as she turned the corner, stepping to stand just before the Zoran King. "It really is you! What a great pleasure it is to see you alive and well. We all mourned greatly for your father's death. But seeing you alive gives me great hope for the future of Hyrule!"

Zelda gave a curt nod, the King's eyes narrowing at the odd apathy he saw in her.

"I wish to speak to Princess Ruto," Zelda said, getting to the point of her visit rather directly. "Is she here?"

"She is seeing to Jabu-Jabu at the moment," the Zora King responded. "If you'd like, I can fetch her for you."

"No, that's okay," Zelda said in reply. "The matter should be discussed in private anyway."

The clear water splashed around Zelda's ankles as she walked through the tunnel, soon finding herself outside. It was a large lake with the guardian deity Jabu-Jabu in the center.

The grown Zora before it was unmistakably the Princess of the Zoras, Ruto, Zelda stalling just a bit before she continued.

An anxious feeling churned into her stomach as she stared, knowing that what would follow could make her feel even more guilty.

If Link had romantic ties to someone he was in love with, for instance Princess Ruto, Zelda would know for sure that she went against his wishes, that she had truly ruined his life and his hopes. If he loved someone in the life he led here, surely he would be suffering in the life she forced him to accept.

And it would be her fault.

"Princess Ruto?" Zelda asked as she ascended the steps to the platform.

The Zora turned around at the inquiry, her eyes widening when she saw Zelda before her.

"Your Highness!" she exclaimed before kneeling, bowing her head. "I apologize, I had no knowledge of your arrival. I must not have heard when father mentioned it."

"I'm afraid it is I who must apologize, Ruto," Zelda said in reply. "My visit is unprecedented and rather informal. In fact, it would make me more comfortable if you stood up, there is no need to bow to me."

"But there is," Ruto insisted as she stood up. "You survived for seven years out of Ganondorf's grasp until Link saved Hyrule and now you are ready and willing to take your father's place at the throne. If that is not worthy of celebration, I'm not sure what is."

Zelda surely didn't feel like celebrating. Perhaps she never would.

"Speaking of which," Ruto said as she glanced behind Zelda. "Where's Link? Did he come with you?"

Goddesses it was hard to hear his name like that, mentioned casually, as if he were in wait just around the corner. Zelda could longer deny that he had a life here too, that people knew him, expected him. Why couldn't she see that until it was too late?

"He's…" she started hesitantly.

"He's not here," Zelda finished quickly, averting her glance.

"Actually, Ruto…I," she said, her head kept down. What a thing to ask out of the blue. "I wanted to ask…"

"Yes?"

"You and Link…were you…?"

"Engaged?" Ruto asked rhetorically, eliciting Zelda to lift her head back up and meet her glance. "Yes. Has Link been talking about me?"

Zelda's heartbeat began to pound in her ears at the word 'engaged'.

Engaged.

He was engaged.

"No need to worry your little heart, Your Highness," Ruto continued, noting her panic. "I've accepted by now that he only desired the sapphire to save Hyrule, and not for my hand in marriage. Besides, I could tell he had feelings for you anyway."

"What?" Zelda asked breathlessly as she felt the color wash away from her face, her body completely frozen as her lips parted. She felt panic truly setting within her now.

This was so unexpected, so unfathomable as she shook her head, a horror in her eyes.

"Oh please, he blushed profusely at the mere mention of your name. It was so obvious. And then of course the warm smile he gave when I acknowledged that my eternal love was not appropriate because he was searching for you. I remember thinking to myself that I'd be lucky to find someone who smiles like that at the thought of me."

"I…I think I need to sit down," Zelda stammered as she felt herself staggering backwards.

"Are you ill, your highness?" Ruto asked with a tip of her head, watching Zelda's hand looking for something, anything behind her.

"I'm…fine," Zelda said breathlessly as her hands found a sturdy column, sliding down it until she sat down. Even her legs had lost their composure.

"You are quite pale," Ruto said with concern as she approached Zelda. "Even for your species. I'll go fetch the doctor. Stay right here."

Zelda barely noticed Ruto's absence, her vision blurring as she stared at the rippling water in the distance.

Not only did Link love someone, he loved her, of all people. Of course he wouldn't say anything. If he thought it was the right thing to do, if he thought it was what Zelda wanted, he wouldn't have objected to being sent back in time.

And it wasn't just that she now knew that her love for him was requited, that all this time they were falling in love with each other, but she was consumed by the thought that she truly had caused his pain, the she was the sole reason for all of it.


	14. Broken

Zelda opened her eyes and sat up slowly.

Perhaps it would be a while before she got used to sleeping through the night, to the comfort of a bed, to the regality of dresses and crowns, to the luxuries of a Princess of Hyrule.

It now seemed so foreign.

She looked around her chambers, her eyebrows furrowing when she noticed Impa's absence.

More than an assurance of the Princess' safety, Impa had made a habit of sitting in that chair to console her back to sleep when Zelda awoke in the night, from nightmares that delved into her darkest fears or deepest desires, or from some residual instinct to get up and break camp, to get up and move along to the next destination.

Those instincts were no longer needed for such a Princess, for someone who would soon be a Queen in her fathers' absence.

Zelda pulled away the blanket that covered her, slowly sliding away from the bed, her feet meeting the cold floor with a distinct shiver through her body.

"Impa?" she inquired as she stepped cautiously to the center of the room, looking around.

Was she hiding? Was there some danger? Had she been taken and Zelda spared?

Not that Zelda needed Impa to console her back to sleep, even to protect her from an intruder.

Zelda often forgot, in her return to the castle, in the moment she wore a dress for the first time in seven years, that she was indeed trained as a sheikah warrior.

Impa knew this well, and surely could have left Zelda to fend for herself if she needed to.

But something was off to Zelda. Impa had been stubborn and insistent in her promise that she would watch over her. For the past week since the Princess' return she couldn't get Impa away if she tried.

Really, Impa was the only remnant of a parent figure Zelda had, the only family she had left.

Yet, she must have just left for some reason, Zelda taking a couple steps back to her bed before hearing three knocks at her window.

Her heart beat quicker, nearly jumping out of her skin at the surprise, quickly taking the Sheikah knives at her bedside into her hands.

Zelda stood before the window again, her eyebrows furrowing when she saw a dark figure behind it, no doubt shadowed by the warped glass of the window.

Her sheikah knives were ready and in hand, her fingers clenching at the handles so hard her knuckles were starting to whiten. She quickly stepped to the window and unlatched the hook, stepping back just as quickly and assuming a crouched battle stance.

The window creaked open, Zelda trying to swallow her fear, her anxiety as she stared, the shadowy figure starting to take on a color.

The two knives clattered to the floor when she recognized it as green, Link hopping from the windowsill to the floor of her room with a rather surprising stealth.

Zelda was speechless, her eyes wide and watering, her breath shaky and heavy.

It really was him, Link.

Tall, with bright, blue eyes and that distinct blonde hair she couldn't ever forget. He wasn't armed in any way, the Master Sword and the Hylian Shield completely gone, not even a sheath or a leather strap hugging his green tunic.

It was just Link.

His faced showed a goofy smile, a chuckle at her speechlessness.

"Not expecting me?" he asked playfully with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, I'm a little late," he said as he went back and closed the window. "The guards changed their rounds again. I guess they're really trying to keep intruders out."

He approached her, stopping quite close and bringing a soft hand to her cheek, Zelda crying at the sensation.

"Goddesses, I missed you, it's bee—"

He stopped himself at the sight of her tears.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

Zelda just stared into his eyes.

If she were honest, this was the most right thing in the world.

That's what was wrong.

She shook her head and said,

"Link, what are you doing here? I…I sent you away…you…you're supposed to be…"

But all her reservations melted away when he kissed her, Zelda almost feeling Link's inhale as it deepened. It was as if they had kissed before.

"You think even all that could keep me away?" he asked with disbelief as he retreated. "I love you."

Zelda let out a shaky inhale as her tears continued.

Something inside her, a small voice she had grown to loathe, told her that all this couldn't be real.

Yet, she wanted it all to be real so much, the whimsy of it, his presence, his touch, his love, his smile, his brightened eyes at the sight of her, that she felt herself delving into it.

"Oh, Link," Zelda said as she kissed him back, the sensation warming inside her so genuine it had to be real.

She found herself leading him to the bed as they continued, their lips seeming to be locked in a desperate, ever-changing hold.

"This is completely improper…" she said jokingly with a smile as she sat down on the bed.

"You say that every time," Link replied with the same smile as she felt her back meet the bed.

"Yes?" she heard him inquire,

"Yes," she replied, her eyes closing,

But, when she closed her eyes, an image flashed in her mind.

A stalfos, a skeleton warrior, with gold-plated heavy armor and gauzy limbs. One eye was blue, its' ocean deep with sadness and despair, and the other eye was red, its' fires burning with regret and with anger.

"Link!" she yelled as she sat up, waking up in a cold sweat, Impa's red eyes across from her perking up with intrigue.

There she was, in that chair, in that corner of the room.

It was all a dream.

Zelda buried her face in her hands as Impa's expression softened.

"I can't do this, Impa," she said, her voice slightly muffled. "Every time, I…I'm so excited to see him…that I think it's real."

Impa her crossed her arms and sat back as Zelda looked up, her eyes wet with tears. It was like staying up with a child with a high fever or some other malady that hinders their sleep. There isn't really much to do but wait for the body to respond to medicine or to heal on its' own.

The only thing Impa could really offer was her presence, and her patience. For the past week that's all she had offered, wanting so much to be able to do more, but knowing she couldn't.

"The image at the end?" Impa asked.

"Same as before, the stalfos," Zelda replied.

"Mmm," Impa said as she nodded. "Interesting…"

"What do you mean, interesting?" Zelda asked, starting to get frustrated and getting out of bed. "That's all you say! 'Interesting' or 'okay' or 'I understand'! That's the best you can offer me?! You just sit here to make monosyllabic and monotone responses?! You could do that anywhere, Impa! In fact, you do! It doesn't help!"

Impa's expression barely changed, she was used to Zelda yelling at her by now.

Zelda started to pace angrily in front of her, from one side of the room to the other.

"Well, it's not interesting! It's completely wicked what I've done! I've ruined his life by thinking I was making a sacrifice, a selfless act on my part, that he couldn't have peace unless it was a time where I hadn't screwed it all up! The first time he gets to have a choice in seven years and I felt I had the right to choose it for him! He must hate me now, living in his timeline! He should hate me! I hate me!"

"And there's the other thing! Is he really living in his own timeline, or is he surviving?! Is that all he's used to because of what he had to do for Hyrule?! Am I going to cause his death?!

Zelda laughed at herself with a short chuckle, the resentment behind it clear.

"No, don't answer that Impa, of course I've caused his death. Whatever happens to him from here on out is my fault."

"But I'll never know, will I?! I'll drive myself crazy wondering what he's doing, whether or not he's hurt, if he went back to Kokiri, if he went journeying somewhere else, how fast he got over me once he started to hate me, why I keep seeing these images of him, whether or not they're true or just tricks of my mind, whether or not the connection between us really exists still or if it was completely severed and my dreams have become nightmares of fantasy, of a lust I can't have!"

"Well?!" Zelda said as she stopped pacing, turning to Impa with the same frustration, making the Princess breathe heavily in the silence that followed.

Impa was crying too, now, but it didn't phase Zelda in the slightest.

She had seen it before.

"That's what I thought! You're silent because you know it's true! That he's not a part of my life anymore! That he never really was, and I just have to accept that and get over him, over all of it! It's inevitable for me to accept that and you just don't want to say it!"

"Well, I don't want to get over him, Impa!" she yelled without thinking, catching herself as she looked down, her fists clenching.

Zelda shook her head in silence, as if there was something in her mind she was trying to block out, to shake off.

"Please," Zelda said in a quiet voice. "Please don't tell me that I have to. I already know."

The Princess retreated a couple steps back, leaning against a bedpost wither arms crossed and her head down.

"You thought I'd tire myself out by now, didn't you Impa," Zelda continued. "Of crying…of shouting…of having these feelings, these dreams, these regrets…I must admit I thought the same."

There was a silence, Impa's gaze not once wavering from the Princess before her, who at all times seemed on the verge of breakdown until she was in the middle of one.

Impa had assumed the habit of clenching the sides of the chair she sat, or clenching at her arms when they were crossed, trying to restrain herself from interrupting.

At times, it was also out of a frustration that her Princess was undergoing such suffering, even after everything she had been through.

She remembered a little girl, distant and foggy in her minds' eye, whose smile and laugh brightened every day. Even when the numbers of Impa's tribe were dwindling, herself forced to watch them recover themselves after the Great Hyrulean Civil War, the smile of the little girl with blue eyes and blonde hair brought her great joy.

After all, if that little girl could smile after her mother's untimely death, then perhaps she could learn more from her than what she was supposed to be teaching.

That little girl, who got excited during story time, hearing about the Goddess Hylia, about old legends in the books, who would run in the meadows for hours, picking flowers and bringing them back to her father.

She made him smile too, in times where the remnants of the civil war left in his kingdom was his responsibility. It didn't matter that he didn't start the war to begin with.

The little girl was changed now, in ways she never expected.

She was empty, the hole in her heart impossible to fill, the kingdom she was obligated to impossible to leave.

Night after night, she yelled at her attendant, a placeholder for herself.

Impa didn't know how to correct the Princess' self hatred, how to heal her broken heart, how to ease her regrets.

"I went to the library today," the Princess finally said, rather calmly, "and I…I found something…"

Impa uncrossed her arms, leaning forward slightly.

This was new.

Normally, the Princess screamed and yelled until she broke down crying on the floor, Impa meeting her there until she consoled her to go back to sleep.

"Logically, I figured I couldn't go to his timeline myself. That was only possible because he was the Hero of Time. He was the only person who wouldn't have been incidentally doubled. It would have catastrophic effects I can't even begin to fathom."

"I looked for reversal spells," Zelda continued. "But those are only for the effects of elixirs or small accidents caused by potions, nothing as big as a shift in time."

Zelda looked up at Impa and said,

"The damage is done. Link is…"

"Link is gone."

"So, I spent the rest of the day pouring through books of old relics. Crystal balls, enchanted mirrors…I even went over all that is known about the Ocarina."

"Nothing," she said with a shake of her head. "Absolutely nothing…"

"Until…" Zelda started, Impa listening intently as Zelda's head went downcast once more, her right hand clutching her left elbow.

"I found a forgetting potion," Zelda said somberly, Impa shaking her head 'no' as soon as she heard it.

"I could forget that I love him," the Princess said as she stepped forward, her glance meeting Impa's.

Only now, Impa's expression was much more heartbroken than concerned, her lips parting.

"I…could forget him," Zelda continued, yet her frustration rebuilt itself in Impa's silence, coming away from the bedpost.

"I could!" she yelled, now petulant. "You don't think I can, but I could! You think I'm weak! Brought to despair by some…some boy! A weakness you warned me about! A weakness you want very much to say 'I told you so, Sheik, this is what you get for letting your guard down'! For falling in love!"

"Well, it turns out that there are remedies for weakness! I can just forget him! I…I could be courted! And…and I could become Queen! Giving birth to heirs without once thinking what they would look like of they were his! I could live a happy life and die an old Queen! Telling my children to be wise and to act on love when I've done neither!"

"Well, is that what you want?! For me to live long enough to fulfill the obligation of passing along the royal bloodline?! Is that all I am to you?! Is that why you sit here in silence, making sure my hate for myself doesn't cascade into something that endangers me! It's not about me is it?! It's about the Royal Family, like always!"

Zelda was now seething with anger, in her eyes a blue flame as she turned away, her back facing away from Impa now. Her arms hugged each other as she brought them up, trying to give herself some comfort she didn't have as she bowed her head.

"It shouldn't be about me, anyway. I…I don't deserve that."

Zelda dropped her arms as her gaze went to the ceiling. Impa didn't know that she was holding back tears. The Princess felt that she had already cried too much, that to cry anymore would be weak and pathetic. What was wrong with her that she couldn't just get past this? She expected herself to be an example to her people, to be within herself the perfection they expected. How could she be a strong leader if she was falling apart?

Zelda walked calmly to the window, opening the latch before leaning her arms and head on the windowsill.

Both her and Impa were truly exhausted, awake for much longer than they were asleep, Zelda especially tired of being so emotionally drained day after day. Impa had gotten used to it all by now, the quick statements of denial before memory betrayed them, the outbursts of anger, the theories she would spin on how to make up for her mistake using the ocarina and the spells she knew, the quiet hours of Zelda's silence in a depressed and unresponsive state, the few times when Zelda acknowledged that Link was gone, and other truths Impa knew was hard to swallow.

They all came and went in a dizzying spell, no rhyme or reason, no structure, no order. Zelda was suffering a grief foreign to Impa, foreign to anyone. There is no grief that is doubled, no grief that is copied, no grief that matches another. Like a unique snowflake on a winters' day, like the distinct patterns of an autumn leaf, like the ever-changing waves of an ocean, grief is never defined, not subject to just one perspective, one overarching statement. It is immeasurable, unstandardized loss that boasts no worse nor better, but just is.

Even the grief suffered by Link, at that very moment, was different from hers.

"Why did he have to love me?" Zelda asked.

Her voice was oddly calm, it seeming to Impa that she was genuine in her inquiry.

But Impa didn't say a word, only keeping her sad gaze on the Princess.

"It makes it all so much harder, Impa, I…"

Impa could tell that the Princess' voice was breaking.

"I don't know what else to do," she said in a small voice.

It was obvious now that she was crying, Impa finally standing up because of it.

The Sheikah attendant placed her hands on Zelda's shoulders, before she felt the Princess shudder at the touch, the sensation so foreign of someone else touching her.

Perhaps that was why the hidden Princess, trained as a Sheikah warrior to be distant and cold, reacted more than most would when the first touches she'd had in years was Links' embrace, his fingertips on her hand, when Malon touched her shoulder, and now when Impa pulled her into an embrace.

The girl she held was so undeniably broken, so torn apart by what she had to endure as a child, by the death of her father, by her love for the swordsman she had wronged, that Impa couldn't help but cry as well.

"The forgetting potion," Impa said. "It's a quick fix to a complicated problem, superficial at best. Your despair won't erase that easily, it never can. The forgetting potion will only make the reason for your pain less clear, it will cascade you into apathy and into darkness. Without reason to follow your pain, you will fall quickly, I've seen it before."

"But Impa, I…" Zelda blubbered. "I can't live like this…I can't rule like this…I just can't…I've never done anything right."

"You saved your kingdom," Impa said softly. "And that, my dear, is plenty."

Zelda was silent as she nodded, as she crawled back into bed, as she drifted off into sleep, as Impa sat back down in the chair.

If Zelda were honest, she had run out of energy, to fight, to yell, to scream.

If she hadn't, she surely would have replied with an 'at what cost'.

* * *

**Author's Note: So…yeah…you wanted angst, right? You didn't? Well, it's here anyway. That's how that works.**

**Pretty proud of this chapter nonetheless. Just a couple more to go.**


	15. Healing

Impa finally found her near the gardens, the grey sky of the early morning teasing rain.

It was a hallway, with ornate carvings and beautiful gardens on either side. She knew it was one of the Princess' favorite places to sit, such a calm and peaceful part of the castle, especially in the summer.

Yet, the bright sun was nowhere in sight, stormy clouds hiding it away, as if it never existed.

A small smile curved the Princess' lips as she plucked the strings of her golden harp, Impa narrowing her eyes at the spectacle before turning to face away from her and crossing her arms.

"I've been meaning to check up on you," Impa said, now standing still on the opposite side of the hallway, looking out at the side of the garden Zelda wasn't near. "We haven't talked in a while."

Zelda kept strumming her harp despite Impa's presence, her words, continuing the song as she said.

"That's kind of you Impa, thank you."

Impa didn't recognize the song Zelda was playing, it not being one of the ones she taught Link as Sheik, not even the lullaby she'd loved since her youth.

"How do you feel?" Impa asked cautiously. "About what is set to happen later today…your courting?"

There was a silence that followed, Impa digging deep in her mind for what that song was. It just sounded so familiar.

"I feel okay," Zelda said in reply. "I suppose it's inevitable."

"You feel…okay?" Impa said as she turned around.

"Yes, Impa," Zelda said with a distinct laugh that put Impa off. "Of course I do. Are you feeling all right?"

"Yes, Your Highness," Impa said before really concentrating on the song Zelda was playing on the harp. It must have been quite old, for Impa to not recall it quickly, a song that Impa never got around to teaching her.

"So…" Impa started. "You're not thinking about Link."

"Who's Link?" Zelda asked casually as she continued to pluck at the strings.

Impa's eyebrows furrowed in confusion before they widened.

"No," Impa whispered as she recognized the song as well, the Sheikah shaking her head in denial. "No, you didn't."

"Zelda!" she said as she rushed forward in a panic, placing her hand quickly on the Princess' shoulder. Zelda stopped playing immediately at the sensation, the serious tone in her voice making her look into the Sheikah's red eyes, "Please tell me you didn't!"

"I didn't what?" Zelda asked rather innocently.

Impa clutched Zelda's shoulder more before she said urgently,

"Link! Do you know who he is? Have you heard that name before?"

There was a silence as Zelda stared, Impa waiting in anticipation of what Zelda would say. She hoped greatly that it would be 'Of course I do, Impa' the way her eyes were fixed into Impa's.

"No," Zelda said with slow shakes of her head. "I..I don't. Honestly, Impa, I don't."

The Princess said it as if Impa didn't trust her, thinking she was for some reason testing her capacity to tell the truth.

But Impa staggered back at the words Zelda said, her heart breaking at the full realization that the Princess before her was so devastated at the loss of Link, at the thought of what she had condemned him to, that she chose to forget him to alleviate the pain.

"I'm sorry," Impa said as she situated herself in preparation and held her hands out, her palms facing Zelda.

"Impa, what are you doing?" Zelda asked as she stood up in surprise, purple magic starting to emanate from Impa's hands.

Zelda was lucky that Impa had gone to the library the morning after that one night and studied reversing the effects of forgetting potions.

Impa steadily watched Zelda's expression for her reaction as the magic reached her, her own hands starting to shake with the effort it took.

The purple waves started to subside as Zelda's eyes widened with familiarity, a shaky inhale escaping her lungs as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Impa walked forward, her red eyes flaming with anger as Zelda was stunned, at the memories of Link flowing back to her with such force, at the strong emotions that she had forgotten so easily.

"Impa, I..."

"You think you're the first person to have a broken heart?!" Impa yelled as she grabbed both of Zelda's shoulders, almost shaking her, "It's not supposed to be easy!"

Zelda blinked in surprise.

"I cannot believe you did that to yourself! To Link!"

"To Link?" Zelda asked.

Impa hung her head with a sigh before meeting Zelda's eyes once again.

"Yes, to Link, Zelda," Impa entreated, with more emotion than Zelda had ever seen in her attendant. "Don't you see? Haven't you figured it out? The timeline you sent him to…he will no longer be the Hero of Time. He will no longer have saved Hyrule. No matter what he does he would be quickly forgotten in that circumstance, especially if he decided to disappear. He will be the only person who remembers what he truly did!"

"Don't you DARE forget him, too," Impa said in a sharp voice, sharp as the sheikah blades hidden from the naked eye. "He doesn't deserve that."

"And you, my Princess, DESERVE to live on, to move forward with the knowledge that it happened. You forget his love, the love you had for him and you lose yourself! You may have felt happier at first, but there would have been this hole you could never fill and never explain why. You would think that pain and misery was simply a given and you would start to loathe your existence! That's why the forgetting potion is so foolish! You forget your empathy! Your reasons to move forward! The past memories that drive you to continue! Never forget love! You only harm yourself by trying to forget the deepest parts of you!"

"You have NEVER done anything wrong. You have only EVER done what you felt was right, and that's all ANYONE can expect of themselves! And I need you alive! Not because I care about your obligation to the kingdom, but because I care about you! You deserve to live!"

Zelda was silenced, utterly silenced. The words were finally getting to her.

"You will get over him, get over this guilt," Impa continued. "A part of you will always love him, but you will get over him. I will do whatever I can to help you move on. But it is a part of your life you cannot forget, you owe it to yourself and to him to remember."

"Please," she begged as she bowed her head. "Please don't give up, please fight to get past this. There is no easy way out where the pain won't resurface. Please fight to live, you deserve so much better than survival. You think you deserve nothing, but I assure you, you deserve everything."

Impa took away her hands and tilted her head back up to say,

"I'm sure Link would agree."

Zelda nodded as she blinked away tears.

Impa turned her head to leave, yet something kept her still, a question in her mind.

"Do you know what song you were playing?" Impa asked.

"No…" Zelda replied. "It…it just came to me."

"It's old, very old," Impa said. "I haven't heard it in years."

Impa sighed an exhale and continued,

"It is known as the 'Song of the Hero'. Somehow, it came out subconsciously when you forgot Link, when you felt pain and couldn't explain why. It…soothed you, didn't it?"

Zelda nodded in affirmation.

"You know the power of music well," Impa continued. "That was no coincidence."

Impa started to walk off, stopped by a quiet,

"Wait."

Impa turned back around to face Zelda, anticipating what would come from her pensive expression.

"Thank you," Zelda continued. "I...just wanted the pain to stop, but..."

Zelda shook her head.

"That wasn't the way."

Impa's expression softened.

"Impa…the visions I've been seeing," Zelda started again, a deep fear in her eyes. "What in Hyrule happened to him?"

Impa's gaze gave a warning.

"Not only is he displaced in his own home, but he is a traumatized boy in a peaceful Hyrule. Silenced by his own reality not being true, he would have a lot of things to work out on his own. From what you've told me, I doubt he has…or that he ever will…"

"Not everyone has the chance to truly heal."


	16. Closure

Zelda passed a merchant as her horse strode along, the hood of her cloak up and her head down.

She was glad at the grey, cloudy skies, a rain not coming that would discourage her small trip and a sun not showing that would encourage greeting and conversation.

She wasn't entirely in the mood, after all.

Zelda took a deep breath before she dismounted, petting the nose of her steed gently as she looked to the chasm before her.

It seemed dark and uninviting, the entrance to Kokiri Forest, the large open log showing no light in its' innards.

Her horse whinnied with a shake of his head, Zelda looking to it and taking a second hand to soothe it.

"Not to worry," Zelda whispered with a small smile. "The only danger in being alone is fear."

Zelda looked to the entrance once more, her hand sliding of the horse.

"I fear not what lies before me."

The Princess, hidden by a cloak, pressed on cautiously towards the open trunk. An odd gust of wind became stronger as she got closer, Zelda's hair and dress almost pulling her back to the castle, coaxing her to bend to nature's wishes.

Yet, she refused to comply, ducking her head and placing an arm before her eyes. Every mystery conceals it's secrets, and she tried to meet this one with bravery as she took steps to resist the wind, the darkness that began to enshroud her.

She closed her eyes as she entered the tunnel, stepping forward and forward again, waiting for her closed eyes to tease the warm green light of the forest.

Instead she heard a laugh, high-pitched and childlike, Zelda furrowing her brow at the lack of familiarity before suddenly, light started to filter through her closed eyelids.

The wind and darkness stopped so suddenly that it seemed like some magic, Zelda opening her eyes to find herself on a wooden bridge.

Her head crept up slowly, her arm descending as well as her eyes widened.

The forest had an incredible hue of green, brightened by floating fireflies, their lights bright and beautiful. Distant birds chirped as she advanced along the creaky wooden bridge.

She got to the end before she heard,

"Princess."

Zelda turned around to see the Sage of the Forest, Saria, still with the same green Kokiri clothes and bright blue eyes.

"What brings you here?" Saria asked.

Zelda came closer, looking from her right to left, before kneeling in front of the girl and meeting her gaze.

"I need to ask you something."

"I wager it's important," Saria said. "The Deku Sprout wouldn't have let you through if it wasn't."

Zelda took a shaky deep breath.

"What do you know…of Stalfos?" She asked, a glimmer of fear in her eyes.

There was a twinge in Saria's expression, the question obviously an oddity she didn't expect.

"They're skeleton warriors," she replied with a shrug.

Zelda shook her head with a sigh.

"I know," she said. "That's all I could find. Please, you must know more. Stalfos sightings concentrate around the forest."

"Your Highness, what is this abo—"

"Please," Zelda entreated, prompting Saria to breath an exhale.

"I know…that they are hostile because they have forgotten," Saria started slowly, Zelda intrigued to no end. "Stalfos…are what becomes of people who get lost in the woods, people…"

Zelda sat back on her heels with an exhale, looking off at nothing in particular.

"Without a fairy," Saria finished slowly and sadly.

"You sent him back, didn't you?" Saria asked, a deep pain in her blue eyes.

Zelda looked to Saria sharply at the inquiry, wondering at the child's oddly deductive qualities until she remembered.

The Kokiri don't age, but time still passes and wisdom still accumulates.

Zelda nodded, her eyes drifting downward.

Her shaky hand trembled to her pocket, pulling out a parchment that crumpled in her hand as she fisted it. Tears had dropped on it before, and so they were again.

But Zelda paid no mind as she ran her thumb to and fro, Saria studying the Princess with concern and worry.

With an extension of her hand, she offered the parchment to Saria, it blossoming like a flower as her palm opened up.

Saria took it hesitantly, her eyes widening when she opened it and saw a drawing of a Stalfos.

"Is…?" Saria started breathlessly, her voice breaking. "Is this…?"

The girl brought a hand to her mouth as Zelda nodded, Saria crumbling to her knees.

"I'm so sorry," Zelda said, it almost coming out as a whisper.

Saria shook her head, placing the parchment back in Zelda's hands and closing her fingers around it.

"We have lost much in losing him," Saria said, closing her eyes and bowing her head. "But he has lost more in losing himself…hope…love…I believe there is a deep loss beyond what you've done to him that was inevitable, Your Highness. He was a broken man before you think you broke him."

"Saria, what I've done…"

"Didn't help," Saria replied frankly. Zelda looked up in surprise. "But you must not blame yourself for things that were bound to happen, nor things you cannot change. In the end, I bet more than anything his downfall was his trauma."

Saria lightly pushed Zelda's hands, as a coax to return the parchment before Saria let go completely. She placed her empty hands on her legs, as if bracing herself against them.

"The past is the only thing in this world that is certain not to change," Saria continued. "In that way, there is a true danger in it. There is looking to the past and then there's living in it. Lose yourself in your regrets of the past and you become no different from Link. As it is his destiny to be courageous, it is equally his destiny to pay for that courage. I as well as you wish the price wasn't so steep."

"Close your eyes," Saria said, Zelda doing as she was told. "Can you see him? His eyes? The way he stood? His smile? So genuine you'd think he was the embodiment of the very emotion of happiness?"

Zelda nodded, keeping her eyes closed as she smiled as well.

Saria wagered it had been a long time since she had.

"That's how I choose to remember him," the girl said, opening her eyes.

"Because that's what he fought for," Zelda added, her eyes still closed. "The happiness he once knew, for others to know it too. To learn, to grow, to fall, but to get back up and do it all again…that was his courage. But to see the best in people, what they could do for others, the things they didn't know they were capable of, the true joy found in unity…that was his compassion…"

"And it was the greatest of them all," Zelda said as she opened her own blue eyes, Saria smiling right back at her.

* * *

"The flow of time is always cruel…its' speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it…a thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days."

Zelda's voice echoed along the great hall as she finished reading the plaque before her, soon looking up and smiling.

"That's why I've chosen to remember you, to celebrate what we had instead of mourning what we didn't."

"You will always be the Hero of Time to me, you will always be the Link I knew, once, in a younger time than this. I couldn't let you become a forgotten hero to the kingdom you saved and I hope very much that you didn't forget either."

"And perhaps this way, in this timeline at least, you will be remembered for your heroism in generations to come."

"Thank you, Link, for saving Hyrule, but for so much more. You are more than just a soldier, a master of an inanimate object. You listened to my childish ramblings with patience, you bravely fought to save Hyrule, and you cared about my kingdom a great deal. You cared about me a great deal…"

"Even when I didn't care about myself…"

"For that I must thank you as well. You taught me so much about forgiveness through your past actions of courage that I've learned to forgive myself, that I deserve to forgive myself. Forgetting myself, and you as well, was a foolish decision. Even though I wronged you greatly, I've accepted that my actions are in the past. I'm sorry that it is the truth, but there was a logic to it that I'm sure you know well by now."

Zelda stepped forward, placing her hand on the top of the stone pedestal and hanging her head in respect.

She knew he couldn't hear her, that he likely never would. But, the likeness of the statue standing atop the pedestal was so much like him that she couldn't resist.

It was much like mourning her father, where words needed to be said no matter whose ears they reached. There was a warm feeling in her heart as well, as if he really were standing before her.

"It is my hope, that in some way, you found peace. I hope it with all my heart, Link. You deserve better than what you got…we both do…"

* * *

The End.

* * *

**Author's Note: Don't have much to say about ending this one. Feels kind of strange. Lots of emotions I didn't expect drudged up from the depths of my own heart and somehow working themselves into words people like.**

**So that's nice.**

**I do want to give a big thank you to Oracle of Hylia for leaving a review on basically every new chapter. I really appreciated it!**

**As far as my next project goes, I'm kind of stuck between writer's block and an "am I even a good writer" crisis so we'll see where that takes me.**

**Until the next,**

**-fatefulfaerie**


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